Ow that hurts!
by obsessed1
Summary: Sheppard has stomach trouble. Read it, i cant say anymore than that. It has somewhat expanded due to great demand!COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: not mine**

**ONE SHOT**

Sheppard pushed Mckay forward as they ascended the grassy slope and caught Beckett's elbow as he slipped and ambled back into him. He winced when his hand knocked his stomach and he managed to keep it together and not swear against the stabbing sensation he had had there all day. Beckett turned to him sheepishly and continued the hike to the top of the hill.

"Why I had to come through the gate is beyond me," said Beckett taking in a deep breath and moving his medical bag onto his other shoulder.

"Well, Rodney insisted that he couldn't make it back to the gate without medical attention," said Sheppard reaching the top himself and shooting Mckay a look.

"I thought I had a broken ankle," said Mckay pointedly hopping on one foot.

"It's a sprain," conceded Beckett and he rubbed the sweat forming on his forehead, "A mild one at that."

"How was I supposed to know," shot Mckay. He leaned on his makeshift crutch heavily as if to make a point.

"You know I have _real_ sick people back at the Infirmary, in need of _real_ medical attention," said Beckett.

Sheppard pushed them on, "We need to keep moving. The sooner we're back to the gate, the sooner we can all get on with our lives," he said and wiped at his forehead. He was feeling hot and sweaty._ And the sooner I can curl up into a ball and die in peace. Ow Ow Ow Ow._ "I don't like this place."

"Why not?" asked Mckay, his eyes darting left and right wildly, "Is there something here?"

Beckett was now tensing to his side and his hand was gripping his medical bag tightly.

"It's just gut feeling," said Sheppard, inwardly groaning at his use of the world gut. It made his mind leap at the chance to remind him of the ache there.

"Gut feeling," repeated Mckay, "okay, so that's just a feeling. Not fact," he paused, "We're fine."

Sheppard raised a finger and looked upwards at the sky. He could hear something. High pitched whining, getting closer. Getting louder, "You hear that?" he said curling his finger around the trigger of his P90.

Beckett was crouching down in response to Sheppard's hand signals and Mckay was attempting the same, "Wraith," blurted out Beckett and he forced a hand over his mouth.

"Just stay low, they'll probably just fly overhead," whispered Sheppard.

"What if they don't?" asked Mckay, "Im injured."

Sheppard shot him a glare and found himself sighing, "I'll get you both back." He looked upwards and a wraith dart shot by. The trees were buffeted by the wind and leaves and various debris began to fall down around them, "Lets move," said Sheppard getting back up with some difficulty. He found his head was swimming and he managed to disguise a dizzy spell by pushing on Beckett and Mckay, "Move," he said.

"What are you doing?" asked Mckay, when he realised that Sheppard wasn't moving.

Sheppard gave him a hand signal which told him to be quiet and then mouthed, "Wraith."

Mckay's eyes widened and Beckett started to push him towards the dense underbrush.

"Keep moving," whispered Sheppard, "I'll catch you up."

He watched them disappear and descended a slope littered with bark and slippy leaves. He knew there was a wraith below him. He had seen the flash of grey withered features and he was pretty certain it was on its own.

He unlatched the safety and waited breathlessly next to a large tree.

"Major are you okay?" Becketts Scottish brogue sounded twice as loud over the radio and he cursed.

Movement from beside him forced him to turn quickly and he spotted a wraith walking quickly and determined towards him. Sheppard stood up and fired rapidly at the Wraiths chest. It dropped to the floor with a dull thud and Sheppard managed to straighten part way to unload another mag into its belly. His own side was protesting and he kicked at the Wraith to make sure it was well and truly dead. He could see a transmitter on its sleeve was glowing and knew that now they needed to be moving quickly.

"Beckett, McKay? How you doing?" he asked as he activated his radio.

"Oh we are just dandy," said Mckay sarcastically, "You left us alone, with no weapons and-"

"Good to hear you're fine. I'm okay by the way Rodney," shot Sheppard and he reached down to push on his stomach, "I got it," He winced when he could feel his side was tender. "But more are coming," he said shakily. Adrenaline was running down and he was beginning to feel the ebbing and flowing of pain in his side again.

"You coming back up?" asked Beckett.

Sheppard swallowed against the bile in his throat, "Yeah, I'll catch you up," he said weakly ascending the slope, "Be…right….with…you," he said walking slowly. He had to ignore his pain and get them back, if the wraith were around, he had to protect them.

The gate was still another hour off and with Mckay hobbling on his crutch and letting out intermittent groans and Beckett stopping every other minute to readjust his bag, it was going to be slow going. They walked in silence for a while with Sheppard trying his best to move the men on whilst insisting there wasn't much farther to walk.

"I've come to realise the off world means walking," said Beckett straining under the weight of his bag."

"You get used to it," said Sheppard stepping over a fallen tree and pointing in the direction of some woods, "Short cut."

"Aye, you get used to it, because you're bloody military."

"Well after this I promise I wont ask you to come off world again," said Sheppard falling into step beside Mckay, "How're you doing?"

Mckay shot him a disgruntled look and made a point to struggle over another clump of earth, "Oh this is great. Really convenient," he snapped.

"Well if you had been looking where you were going instead of staring at the scanner, you wouldn't have fallen into that hole," said Sheppard smiling. It fell short though when he felt a slight twinge in his side and he stopped and bent inwards.

"Are you okay?" asked Beckett coming up beside him and placing a hand on his shoulder.

Sheppard waved it away and straightened up after a second, "Just got a cramp. Haven't eaten in a while," he confessed and pulled out a power bar from his vest. "We don't have time for this. We need to get to the gate before the Wraith get here." He took a bite of it to show Beckett he was okay, but immediately regretted it once he had swallowed he felt his stomach roll.

All he wanted to do was get back to the gate quickly, without being poked and prodded by Beckett. If Beckett sat him down he would want to know how long he had been feeling unwell and then he would have to tell him that he had been feeling ill all night, intermittently throwing up, and rolling around his bed in agony. Beckett would tell him it was food poisoning, as Sheppard suspected, and then he would spend the next few weeks in the infirmary trying to escape and pestering Beckett until he threw him out of his infirmary. It was best for all that he put up and shut up. That way he could keep going on his missions and Beckett could concentrate on healing people who were quite content to lie in bed all day and eat hospital food. See, what a kind man he was.

"Come on, lets keep moving," he said swallowing against the nausea. Boy, he was sure hot too. With night closing in there was a distinct chill in the air, but he was burning up inside his uniform and as he walked he unzipped his vest and his jacket. The cold air caught on his skin and offered him some fleeting relief.

----------

An hour later and the gate was within sight. Sheppard was thankful of that fact because he didn't think he could walk any longer. The pain in his side had increased threefold and now aside from the nausea, a headache had joined the party. Mckay was still moaning and until he was safe in the infirmary Sheppard wasn't going to admit to his own ills.

Beckett could obviously see his was having some trouble as he weaved towards the DHD and stopped him before they started dialling, "Are you okay?"

Sheppard lifted his eyes to Beckett's and managed a weak nod, "Just feeling a little off," he said as Mckay started to activate the gate.

"Off how?" Beckett asked and Sheppard held his hand up as he tapped his earpiece.

"Doctor Weir, we're back at the gate," he said turning away from Beckett and letting out a shaky breath.

"Major Sheppard, good to hear your voice."

"We had a little problem with some wraith but we're okay now," he paused and swallowed as his stomach recoiled.

" How is Rodney?"

"He's fine," said Sheppard looking over to where Mckay was leaning against his crutch and looking thoroughly miserable, "He's just-"

"Major?"

Sheppard couldn't continue, because it was at that moment he lost the battle with his insides and Weir and everybody else in the gateroom were treated to the sound of Sheppard expelling his stomach contents.

Beckett was at Sheppard's side and patted him on the back whilst Sheppard wretched on an empty stomach. He stayed bent over for a minute before slowly straightening up. He let Beckett feel his forehead and he tutted, "You have a fever."

Sheppard's eyes looked glassy and sweat had formed on his brow. He raised his eyebrows weakly and tapped his earpiece, "Sorry about that," he said and put his hand over his mouth when he felt his stomach heave again.

Beckett, having some sympathy, connected his own radio and said, "The Major's not too well, we're coming through."

Weir answered quickly, "Very well. Your clear to do so."

Mckay wrinkled his nose as Sheppard turned around and slowly walked towards the gate, all the while being guided by Beckett.

------------

When they stepped through the gate on the other side, Weir was standing at the base of the steps waiting for them. She watched as Mckay hobbled through and dropped to the floor on the other side. He bought his foot around and rubbed at his ankle.

She was shocked when she saw Sheppard coming through with the aid of Beckett. He was hunched over and gripping his right side and looked to be a lot of distress.

She stepped forward as the gate deactivated and she could hear Mckay moaning, "Where's the medical team. I cant possibly walk, my ankle kills," he said rocking back and forth.

"They are on their way. Major?" she inquired and Sheppard looked up at her and let out a long shaky breath. He managed a weak smile for a second, before it curled into a wince. "I'm fine," he lied, "Get Rodney to the infirmary before he moans us all to death." He curled in on himself again.

"Beckett?" she asked, "What's going-" She would have finished, but all of a sudden the gate alarm began to blare over head and the room was plunged into darkness. Only the lights from the various consoles were still lit and some bleeped intermittently.

"What the hells going on?" asked Weir turning around and looking up at one of the techs. He was holding his hands out and shrugged. As if things could get any worse, another louder alarm started to bleat, its arrival, indication that the base was going into lockdown and they all watched helplessly as large shutters began to drop around the gateroom.

Sheppard groaned and sank to the floor. He was panting hard and trying to send a message to his stomach to not try and throw his actual stomach up. Not in front of Elizabeth and most definitely not on her shoes.

"Rodney?" Weir asked.

Mckay was already up onto his feet, the pain in his ankle forgotten and he was running up the stairs to look over the consoles. When he was at the central console, he elbowed one of the techs out of the way and started to type in various commands.

"Rodney?" asked Weir again. She was growing impatient and her eyes sought out Sheppard who was looking up at her, gritting his teeth and waiting for an explanation.

"The base has gone into lockdown and power has deferred from the central room and redirected to….I cant tell. All I know, is this is going to take some time."

"What's working?" she asked hopefully.

"We still have gate controls and most of the systems are unaffected. Radio's are down." He shook his head and moved to another console. "Move," he said harshly and started typing away, "Its not a virus, It's internal," he said and walked over to a position where he could see Weir again.

"Can you get us back up and running," she said.

Mckay nodded and walked back over to a console. "Of course I can. Just give me a few minutes."

Sheppard stood up behind her and started towards the steps, "I'll help," he managed to get out before gripping his side again.

"Oh no you don't," said Beckett holding him back.

Sheppard turned around to face him and gritted his teeth against another onslaught of pain, "I'm fine," The last word he raised the pitch of his voice and he sank to the ground clutching his stomach and gasping.

"You're not fine," said Beckett indicating for Weir to bring him his medical kit.

Weir sat beside him on the steps and put a hand on his shoulder, "Beckett, what's wrong with him?" she asked and Sheppard gripped her hand in his.

Beckett was getting out his thermometer and stuck it in Sheppard's ear as he asked, "What are your symptoms?"

Sheppard bought a hand up to wipe the sweat on his forehead and said, "Hot, pain in my side," he said before leaning forward. "What is it?"

Beckett removed the thermometer and tutted, "103,"

"Toasty," said Sheppard feeling more green with every second that passed.

Beckett shook his head, "We need to get you to the infirmary." He caught Sheppard as he pitched forward and he instructed the man to lie flat on the floor. He took off his jacket and laid it under Sheppard's head.

Staff had begin to gather around to watch the spectacle. Many of them were of no help to Mckay, plus he had told a lot of them to go away anyway.

Beckett pulled Sheppard's hand away from his side and gave the area a small push. Sheppard let out a yelp and his hands sought out the spot on his stomach again, "Please, don't do that again," he said balling his fists up.

Beckett bit his lip and the looked back up towards the control centre, "Rodney, how long till we get out of here?" he shouted.

Mckay appeared at the top of the stairs with a bunch of wires in his hands and shrugged, "Within two hours or so," he looked down at Sheppard who was writhing on the floor, "What's up with him?"

Beckett glanced down at Sheppard who had closed his eyes and then over to Weir, "I think you've got appendicitis. All the symptoms are there," he said.

"No I don't," said Sheppard attempting to sit.

"You do," said Beckett poking his side to emphasise the point, "Mcburney's point," he said knowingly.

"I don't have appendicitis," moaned Sheppard, "I cant."

"You'd rather be taken out by the wraith or in a heroic act huh?" asked Beckett smiling. He gave Weir a worried glance and she knew the implications.

"Appendicitis is so…normal," said Sheppard. He rolled onto his side.

"And-" began Beckett.

"And," groaned Sheppard attempting to sit. The action failed and he lay back again.

"If we don't operate," he paused, "A peri-appendiceal abscess if not treated can rupture and then we're in a whole lot of trouble."

"You're kidding me?" said Sheppard with a short laugh, "Well get me to the infirmary and-"

Beckett shot Mckay a look. "I'll keep working," said Mckay.

"What are you going to do?" asked Weir and she reached for Sheppard's hand again and gave it a squeeze.

"I need to do an appendectomy as soon as possible," said Beckett looking up nervously. He realised there were lights on them and he saw that some of the military men had had the forethought to turn on their P90 lights and shine them in his direction. He offered them a small thank you and looked at the contents of his medical bag.

"How long can we wait?" asked Weir.

"Yeah how long can we wait?" asked Sheppard, his face sweating and eyes looking glassy.

"We cant," he said and just at that moment a console in the control room made a large bang and wisps of smoke started to fizzle through to the gateroom, "What the bloody hell was that?"

"Sorry," said Mckay coming to the top of the stairs again, "I don't know what's going on here, but it's we're not going anywhere for a while."

"How's the ankle….Rodney?" Sheppard called out from the floor.

Mckay looked down at his previously injured foot and embarrassed looked up again, "It's fine. Why don't you worry about your exploding appendix down there and I'll worry about everything up here." He looked over to Beckett, "Stop interrupting me and I'll get this fixed."

"I'm going to have to operate," said Beckett snapping on his latex gloves, "If we leave it, we risk it rupturing and causing more damage, not to mention infection."

Sheppard nodded, "Do what you have to Doc, I trust you."

Beckett leant forwards and practically whispered the next part, "Major, this is going to hurt. I have no analgesic and very little morphine. You'll be awake throughout the whole procedure."

Sheppard seemed to pale, but he nodded.

"Beckett, you cant be serous?" said Weir looking down at Sheppard, "What if something goes wrong?"

Sheppard sat up slightly, "Nothing will go wrong," he said patting Beckett on the arm, "Right?"

"It really is a very simple procedure," said Beckett, "But usually my patients are asleep when I do it." He gave Sheppard an apologetic look, but he understood.

Beckett set about taking Sheppard's vest off and cutting open his shirt. He then injected Sheppard with some morphine and some antibiotics.

He reached for a scalpel he had stashed in his medical bag. It was the wrong size and the blade wasn't an intricate as he would have liked, but it would do the job, and hopefully by the time he had finished he would be able to patch Sheppard up properly in the Infirmary. That was what he hoped anyway.

Beckett looked up at all of the people above watching and he found himself getting angry, "This isn't going to be pleasant and I'm sure Major Sheppard does not want you gawping at him over his head so I suggest you find some other point in the room to stare at." He poised the scalpel over Sheppard abdomen and paused. Sheppard looked up at him and nodded, "Do it," he said gently and then looked upwards and prepared to grit his teeth.

Weir positioned herself next to Sheppard so he could see her and hopefully be distracted from the pain. The thought died when Beckett made his first incision and Sheppard sucked in a deep breath and hissed it out in pain.

Beckett made an incision two to three inches in length through the skin and the layers of the abdominal wall in the area of the appendix.

"So how was today's mission?" asked Weir.

Sheppard looked up at her and through gritted teeth said, "What?"

"Your mission, today. How did it go? I take it you didn't find anything?"

"You cant be serious," he rasped.

Weir raised an eyebrow at him and nodded.

Sheppard knew why she was doing this and he inwardly thanked her for it. "It was a bust, " he sucked in his breath and held it, as he felt a tugging sensation in his side. He could feel something warm, probably his blood dribbling down the side of his stomach, "Mckay fell ….ah…over and there wasn't even anything at the ruin that….shit…..ow…..yielded further investi…crap….gation. Beckett?"

Becketts face appeared over his head, "What is it son?"

"Is everything. I mean you're not cutting anything you shouldn't down there?" Sheppard balled his fists up and tried to concentrate on something else, but he was somewhat curious to know what was going on.

Beckett smiled and patted his shoulder, he could see the blood on his gloves, "You let me worry about it. Keep talking to Doctor Weir." He disappeared from sight again.

"A bust huh?" repeated Weir.

Sheppard nodded, "I'm not going to let Mckay convince me to look at ruins again." He paused.

"He's very insistent when he wants to be,"

"That's the problem"

"And then…the wraith turn up," he paused and he closed his eyes and swallowed hard, "Took one out." He stopped again and went still.

"How's the uh stick practice going?" asked Weir and he noticed her eyes flick over his head and back to him.

His eyes fluttered open again and he tried to see through the blur in his head "Stop looking at my insides, " he joked and she quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Stick practice, John?" she said again.

Sheppard was having trouble thinking straight. The morphine was making him feel drugged enough to feel sleepy but not enough to dull out the pain. It was like white noise in the background, gnawing at him and he found himself moving against a twinge in his side, "Stick practice. I still cant beat Teyla," he said through the drug induced fog, "She always kicks my ass."

"Perhaps you could show me," said Weir and her eyes they again found a point over his head. Sheppard rolled his eyes, "You wanna take a picture with it?"

Weir looked back down at him and squeezed his shoulder, "You're doing really well."

Sheppard didnt comment on the fact that she had just made him feel about ten years old. Instead he found himself looking upwards and he could see various people standing on the balcony and looking down at him. He was sure he could even hear their whispers.

"Well Rodney's ankle looks much better," she squeezed his hand and in response he squeezed back.

"Yeah," he said quietly, "Hypochondriac," he muttered.

"I heard that, "shouted Mckay.

"Aye and you're the other way," said Beckett, "This is rather advanced. How long have you been in pain?"

Sheppard pursed his lips together and said, "Since yesterday morning. I woke up with it. Thought I had pulled it in…stick practice." He smiled.

Beckett shook his head, "Why do I bother. If you had left this, you could have died."

Sheppard was aware of the seriousness of the situation and he moved under another cut form Beckett.

Beckett freed the appendix from its attachment to the abdomen and to the colon, cutting the appendix from the colon and sewing over the hole. "Not long now," he said as he worked.

Sheppard looked up at Weir and could see her paling features as she was obviously looking at his stomach, "How does it look?" he asked.

She looked back at him and nervously licked her lips before answering, "Alien goo, couple of ovaries….." She saw Sheppard's panicked look and then gave his hair a stroke, "Its fine. Beckett is sewing you up now."

"Nice and secure Doc," he said.

Mckay started to descend the steps towards him and he stopped half way, putting his hands over his eyes ad turning away abruptly, "oh god, you could have warned me," he said retching slightly, "I mean, yuck," He turned and peeked through his hands but was alarmed more than anything by the amount of blood that had pooled around Sheppard's body, "He's dead isnt he?" he said.

Sheppard jolted up at the remark and Weir pulled his shoulders back down, "I'm alive thank you," he shouted loudly.

Mckay released the breath he didn't realise he was holding and started to talk, "I'm getting us back on line. It would appear power is being directed to my lab, which means Zelenka is doing something he shouldn't and has yet again underestimated his own ineptitude and now I am needed to fix the problem."

Beckett sewed the final stitch and placed a clean gauze over his stomach. He pulled off his gloves, "All done,"

"So where is it?" asked Sheppard. His eyelids felt like lead and he having a hard time staying conscious.

"Where's what?" asked Beckett.

"My appendix. Don't you usually put them in jars and show them to the patient?" asked Sheppard and Beckett shared a glance with Weir.

"Its an ugly looking thing." He picked up the plastic bag he had placed it in and put it up in front of Sheppard's face. Sheppard inspected it for a minute before turning his nose up at it, "That was in me," he said giving the bag a poke.

"Certainly was," said Beckett dropping the bag into his medical case, "And we're lucky we got it out when we did or it would have burst."

"Better looking than you," snarked Mckay.

"Rodney, fix Atlantis," groaned Sheppard.

"So how is the patient?" asked Weir.

"Well, he's lost a lot of blood. So that's why you're probably feeling weak right now, and I need to re enter the cavity, explore and re-stitch to make sure I got out everything. I'm pretty sure I did. We'll set you on a course of antibiotics and you should be back on duty within a week or so."

Sheppard nodded," I always thought it would be the wraith that bought you down," said Weir.

Sheppard smiled but could feel himself slipping into sleep. "So did I."

As everything faded to black, he could hear alarms blaring as the lockdown was reversed and Mckay moaning about his ankle again. Everything was restored to peace, so he slipped into peaceful oblivion.

The end

Just a little thing I fancied writing. Let me know whatcha think of it.


	2. Chapter 2

_Some of you wanted a little bit of a sequel, so here it is. An infirmary, post whump scene._

Sheppard groaned and rolled over onto his side. Sucked in a deep breath and rolled over onto his other side. Again, the knot in his stomach twisted and he tried to straighten out to lie on his back. Pain. Lots of it. Every movement jarred his bruised insides and every breath coursed new life to fuel his aches.

He let his eyes creep open and the instant he did he felt his stomach lurch and he sat up stiffly, one hand over his mouth, the other gripping the railing beside the bed. His knuckles were turning white as he waited for the nausea to dissipate, but his stomach continued to roll and found himself letting out an audible moan.

"You're awake," he heard the small voice from the other side of the room say.

Sheppard turned his head slowly, fixed his eyes on Beckett, and then swallowed against the bile in his throat.

"Do you want some water?" asked Beckett. He got up from the chair he had been snoozing in and walked over to Sheppard.

Sheppard shook his head, afraid speaking would evoke his stomach to think the way was clear for expulsion. Instead he lay back and closed his eyes.

Beckett was standing beside him, checking his vitals, with a tension that Sheppard had never felt before.

"You did good?" he muttered and was surprised at how raw his throat felt and how tired he was.

Beckett was wringing his hands together and staring off at another point in the room, "I messed up," he said quietly and picked up Sheppard's chart.

Sheppard knitted his brows together in an expression of confusion and pushed himself up onto his elbow. The nausea returned with a vengeance and he was about to answer when Beckett thrust a bowl under his chin, obviously seeing John turn green, and waited as he dry heaved into the bowl. Sheppard found himself swearing and he clamped his hands around the railings in frustration.

"Why do I feel so crappy?" asked Sheppard hugging the bowl to his chest and waiting whilst Beckett raised the bed to a more comfortable angle.

"You have a low grade fever, previously high grade, and an infection," said Beckett, his eyes drawn to the chart.

"I don't understand?" said Sheppard closing his eyes against the swimming sensation in his head.

Beckett looked up, licked his lips, and this time stared Sheppard straight in the eyes. There was no mistaking the feelings which were storming underneath when he said, "By operating on you out there, you caught an infection," he paused briefly, hands shaking, "I should have waited and as a result……"

"Beckett?" Sheppard asked. He was becoming aware of a dull throbbing sensation on his chest, almost like an acute burning. He reached down and only then realised his ribs hurt too. One definitely felt broken.

"We nearly lost you, I had to bring you back with the paddles." Blurted out Beckett, "I broke a rib, I'm sorry," he said and his face conveyed a thousand sorry's.

Sheppard felt numb. He couldn't respond to this new information and he simply said, "I'm okay."

"But we nearly lost you. Because of my negligence," stated Beckett and Sheppard could sense he was having real doubts about the effectiveness of his doctoring skills.

"You got me back," said Sheppard. He had almost died and yet it wasn't quite sinking in. After all the last thing he remembered was the Doc thrusting his appendix in his face and them laughing at how ugly it was. He had no idea that minutes after he had slipped unconscious and nearly died.

Beckett looked distraught, "I should have waited to get you into surgery, I raised your risk of infection," he said now pacing back and forth. He bought his hand up to his face and gave it a weary rub.

Sheppard leaned forward to catch his elbow and to stop his pacing. _One_ because he hated to see a friend like this, and _two_ it was only fuelling the nausea he felt. "Beckett, you said yourself, if you had left it I could have died anyway. You had to make a choice. You made the right one."

Beckett stopped dead and turned to face him, "We're all making choices here," he said with a solemn smile, "All the time. Its hard to know when you make a right one." He looked utterly defeated and tired.

Sheppard nodded and realised that their choices were often not so far apart. They all seems to involve life or death these days.

"It was a stupid decision," said Beckett walking over to the opposite bed and leaning on it.

"Saving my life?" questioned Sheppard. He leant back heavily and closed his eyes.

"I had the wrong equipment, no analgesic, you'll have a scar-"

"Women like scars," muttered Sheppard slowly retrieving the bowl and hugging it against his chest again.

Beckett sighed, "You could feel every cut, I didn't even screen off the area to give you some privacy."

Sheppard tried to get a hold of himself. He could feel himself slipping away to sleep but he wasn't going to not having finished this conversation with Beckett, "It needed to come out," he said simply, "In the field, I've seen worse," he said and opened one eye to look at Beckett. He was looking at him expectantly and waiting for an explanation.

Sheppard groaned and opened both eyes, "You have saved my life on more than one occasion Doc. You saved my life. If I had got an infection from my appendix bursting…surely that would have been worse right?"

Beckett nodded but didn't raise his eyes.

Sheppard could feel his face flushing and Beckett walked over to him and put a hand up to his head, "You're hot again." He pulled out a thermometer and stuck in Sheppard's ear, "100," he paused, "I shouldn't have kept you up talking, you should be resting."

Sheppard nodded and sank back in the bed feeling more tired than he had ever felt, "You needed to talk," he said adjusting his position and wincing at every movement, "You needed to see I was alive."

Beckett grabbed Sheppard's wrist and gave it a squeeze. They stood still for a moment, until both men felt slightly uncomfortable with the close contact. Beckett turned away and rolled his shoulders and Sheppard cleared his throat.

"Get some rest," said Beckett and Sheppard closed his eyes.

"Beckett my ankle hurts again," he heard the voice and kept his eyes firmly shut.

He could hear Beckett sigh but then something strange happened, "Get on the bed Rodney and I'll have a look. I'm sorry I didn't believe you when you said it was hurt before but I'll make sure I go over it thoroughly."

There was movement and Rodney was obviously sitting up on one of the beds, "Is it broken? Shouldn't you x ray it?"

"Aye, I will x ray it. You sit back and make yourself comfortable."

Sheppard smiled and let himself fall into a peaceful slumber, knowing he would be safe.

"Whys Sheppard smiling like that?" he heard Rodney say, just before he floated away.

The end


	3. Chapter 3

_SHEPPY this is just for you._

Beckett was dreaming. He knew he was, but he couldn't shake of the vestiges of the previous day and they were replaying in full Technicolor. Over and over.

_Earlier_

Sheppard closed his eyes and Beckett looked over to Elizabeth as the lockdown reversed and the barriers put down before started to raise and admit confused staff.

"Carson, my ankle still really hurts," said Mckay as he descended the steps adding a significant limp to the equation.

Beckett shot him a look, "You're fine," he said returning his eyes to Sheppard and watching the mans face quietly. He had slipped unconscious quickly and now his cheeks looked slightly flushed.

He was about to press his hand up against his forehead when one of his other senior Doctors, Doctor Clarke, crouched down next to him.

"What the hell?" he asked pulling up the gauze on Sheppard's stomach and shaking his head, "What happened?"

Beckett pulled off his latex gloves and threw them onto the floor next to Sheppard's prone body, "I had to do an emergency appendectomy," he said wiping at his forehead.

"Carson, my ankle," said McKay from behind him.

"Appendectomy? Out here, without the proper tools?"

"They were sterilised, clean…..I'm not a bloody idiot," said Beckett.

"Beckett, my ankle?"

Beckett found himself whipping his head round and saying, "Shut up about your bloody ankle Rodney, you're fine."

"You should have waited," said Doctor Clarke and he took Sheppard's pulse.

"We couldn't wait," said Beckett, "And I've had enough medical experience to know that."

Clarke was still checking Sheppard's pulse.

"He's going to be fine," snapped Beckett.

Clarke gripped him by the hand and forced it down onto Sheppard's neck, "You feel that?" he asked.

Beckett's eyes widened and he looked up at Clarke with an exaggerated gulp.

"What's going on?" asked Elizabeth. She looked over to Mckay who had forgotten all about his injury and hurt pride to feel concern for his team mate.

"I…..He's tachycardic," he said.

"You shouldn't have operated out here," said Clarke with enough venom in his voice to make Beckett recoil slightly.

"You've already made that point. I did what was best for my patient," he said as Clarke called for a gurney.

"You're going to get your patient killed," he said and he looked at his CMO with a solemn expression, "You should have waited."

"We didn't know how long we had," interjected Elizabeth and she put a hand on Beckett's shoulder.

The gurney arrived and they hoisted Sheppard onto it, careful not to jar him unnecessarily.

They started off for the infirmary and for a moment Beckett stood perfectly still in the gateroom, feeling a multitude of eyes fixed upon him.

Elizabeth began to follow the gurney, "Are you coming?" she asked.

Beckett looked unsure, "I don't understand," he said with a shake of his head.

"Carson, go after your patient," said Mckay pushing him forward.

Beckett nodded and started off up the corridor, Mckay and Elizabeth on his heels.

He didn't have to go far because the gurney had stopped in the centre of the corridor and Clarke was leaning over Sheppard's form and looking into his eyes with a penlight.

"What's going on?" shouted Beckett as he approached.

Clarke pushed him out of the way and Beckett was pressed against the wall and forgotten. He gulped in some air and pushed one of the nurses aside, "Doctor Clarke, what is going on?"

Doctor Clarke shot him a look, "He's awake," he said and then added, "I don't think you should-"

"I am the CMO," said Beckett, though not as confident as he would have hoped, "And he's still my patient."

Clarke nodded, "You know my feelings and if he dies-"

"He is awake," said Mckay looking down at Sheppard.

He was writhing on the gurney and mumbling incoherently.

"We need to get him to the infirmary right now," said Beckett, "We need to get him prepped for surgery -"

Sheppard suddenly shot up and tried to push off everyone around him, he unsuccessfully swung one leg over the gurney and tried to focus with glassy eyes, "Get off," he shouted when one of the nurses attempted to calm him.

"Major, you need to lie back down. You have a fever, you're not thinking straight."

Sheppard gave Beckett a confused look, "I feel so…strange," he managed to say before promptly throwing up on the floor.

The vomit was tinged with blood, which now indicated he had torn something inside and was bleeding internally.

"You need to lie down, "said Beckett again, pressing Sheppard's shoulders back down.

Sheppard's eyes were darting wildly to the side and they started to move the gurney very slowly towards the Infirmary, all the while Sheppard was thrashing about and trying to get away, "You did this," he said and his eyes fixed with Beckett's.

"He doesn't know what he's saying," said Mckay all of a sudden.

Beckett swallowed hard and pushed the gurney onwards.

"You shouldn't have…." Sheppard groaned and clutched his side, "Why does it hurt?"

"He's delirious," said Clarke and he was prepping a syringe as he spoke.

"Is he going to be okay?" asked Elizabeth jogging beside them.

There were so many people in the one corridor it was a wonder they could all keep moving in unison and with such fluid interaction.

"Beckett," shouted Sheppard his hand clawing out for the Doctor, "You did this didn't you?" His eyes finally rolled back in his head and he settled down.

They had thought that was the last of it but all of a sudden Sheppard's body was wracked with a strong convulsion and he was deathly still.

The gurney came to a halt and Beckett pressed his hands up to his neck, "He's stopped breathing," he said and he jumped up onto the gurney to start compressions, "Keep us moving, "he snapped, "One, two, three….somebody bag him," he shouted.

"Beckett," shouted Mckay and he moved to the gurney to help push it.

Beckett was panting and continued to carry out his checks with practiced professionalism, "One, two…._snap…_three"

"What was that?" Elizabeth asked.

"I broke a rib," said Beckett, his face a mask of neutrality.

"Its very common," said Clarke now finding the sympathy to side with Beckett.

Beckett leant down and put his head on Sheppard's chest, "He's breathing" he said and they stopped the gurney so he could jump off.

"Beckett?" asked Elizabeth.

They arrived at the gurney and he let them take Sheppard through, "He has an infection. His decreased immune system from being ill, the strain of the surgery I performed earlier has contributed to…" he paused unsure of how to rectify the situation, "If his appendix had burst. He would be dead," he stated, and that was all that Elizabeth needed to know.

"Do what you have to do," she said breathlessly, "And Beckett…..take care of him."

"That's what I was always trying to do," he said and gave Mckay a nod before running back inside.

---------------

The surgery was long and arduous. He had indeed caused an infection to progress with unprecedented efficacy.

The combination of the strain from his earlier operation and Sheppard's weakness to start meant that he had become ill.

Beckett knew that by leaving the appendix, it would have burst and caused more problems, but also that his interference had meant that an infection had become rife anyway.

They managed to clean the cavity and repair a small tear that Sheppard had created by moving when he was being transported to the infirmary and he was now on a high dose of antibiotics to stave off the remainder of the infection.

During surgery his heart had stopped and Beckett had had to intervene with paddles.

Major John Sheppard was an extremely lucky man.

------------------

Sheppard stirred and opened his eyes and stared across at the man lying across the room from his chair.

He had escaped death by minutes and because of Beckett.

He didn't know what was happening. It was like one bad decision spiralled out of control. One of those snowballs which picked up more and more compacted dirt and grime only to end up in a big mess at the end.

He knew he wasn't a bad Doctor, not really, but his decision about operating there and then had nearly cost him a good friend. A friend who trusted him.

"You did good," said Clarke from across the room, snapping Beckett out of his mantra of self pity.

He placed Sheppard's chart on the end of the bed and came to stand next to him, "I shouldn't have snapped at you. That appendix _would_ have burst."

Beckett leant forward and put his head in his hands, "Aye. I know."

"Get some rest," said Clarke and before he left he gave Sheppard another look, "If he'd told you sooner…"

Beckett raised his eyes and nodded, "I know. We would have caught it."

"Its as much his fault."

Beckett couldn't agree to that.

He knew that Sheppard was more than willing to keep injuries to himself, but his reluctance to tell them about him ills that day stemmed from a far more powerful instinct.

The instinct to protect and get them home.

The same instinct that Beckett had now watching Sheppard sleep.

Sheppard stirred and seemed to be straining against the pain. He watched as he slowly opened his eyes and blinked the cobwebs from his mind, "You're awake," said Beckett forcing a calm exterior.

_There you go, another strange instalment._


	4. Chapter 4

_You keep asking for more and I can't resist trying to write more._

Sheppard opened his eyes and blinked the fuzziness out of his head.

The infirmary was empty. That almost bothered him; perhaps appendicitis wasn't as interesting to everyone as a gun shot wound or a freaky alien virus.

No, he decided, it wasn't.

He couldn't believe that after everything that had happened to him, it was his own body which had conspired against him.

Sheppard sat up stiffly and lifted up his scrubs top to peer down at the scar. It looked like a crooked smile.

Sheppard shoved his scrub top back down and sighed.

Yep, the scar was mocking him.

He wondered how long he had been asleep. It couldn't have been long. He still felt the dull ache in his side resonating through his body and his heart was still testing the construction of his broken ribs by knocking heavily against them and making him wince.

His bladder was also protesting and before having a quick peek to make sure nobody was around he very slowly swung his legs over the edge of the infirmary bed. He still was feeling the effects of the infection, he was still uncomfortably hot and his whole body felt sweaty and clammy. He wished he could have a shower, but knew standing for any length of time would probably wipe him out. No, he'd have to settle for a bathroom break instead.

He lowered one foot onto the floor and when his barefoot touched it he nearly yelped out. It was icily cold and he took in a deep breath as his left foot followed.

He held onto the bed for a moment, swaying slightly, and breathing in short increments to settle his stomach.

The toilet wasn't far away, all he had to do was keep focused and keep going. There was no way in hell he was going to use a bed pan. His now-non-existing appendix would not be beating him. Not this time.

He let go off the railing and started forward, one hand pushing his IV pole, the other waving out into the air like an acrobatic trying to find a point of balance. His knees were very slowly buckling and he was sweating profusely with the effort of trying to keep his body co-ordinated and upright.

It clearly wasn't to be.

His vision began to grey at the edges and his heart beat was so loud he could hear it in his ears.

Sheppard groaned and pitched forward, the IV pole clanked to the floor beside him as his knees hit the ground he let out another involuntary whine.

"What the hell are you doing?" the voice over his head suddenly asked.

Sheppard blinked against the light from the door way and saw the silhouette standing over him, hands on hips and with a third leg.

No, scratch that.

It was a cane.

"Rodney?" he asked weakly.

Mckay knelt down beside him and gripped him by his elbow, "You shouldn't be up and about," he said starting to pull Sheppard to a standing position.

He pulled the IV pole up to and started cajoling him back towards his bed.

"I'm fine," snapped Sheppard, but the sudden outburst caused the pain in his side to flare up and he hunched over slightly.

"You're fine," said Mckay, "Okay, we'll just stand here then for a while."

Sheppard nodded, glad that Mckay was going to listen to him, but he could feel his grip was tightening around the IV pole and his legs were shaking again.

"How are you doing?" asked Mckay looking at his watch.

Sheppard was biting his lip and trying to stare at a point in the room that was fixed. Unfortunately everything around the point was stirring.

"Just admit you're struggling," said Mckay.

Sheppard finally, resigned to the fact that his body had beaten him, pursed his lips and closed his eyes before saying, "I need my bed."

He heard Mckay make a humph noise and then he was guiding him back to his bed.

Sheppard had nearly made it back to the bed when he suddenly heard, "What are you two doing?"

Sheppard cursed under his breath and turned to the voice.

This time it was Beckett who was standing in the door way.

He walked into the infirmary, rubbing at his eyes, and turned on the lights to illuminate Sheppard guiltily standing in the centre of the room, with McKay.

"I needed the bathroom," muttered Sheppard.

Beckett's face went from angry to placid and he nodded, "Oh okay."

Mckay and Sheppard exchanged a glance, "Uh Beckett. Sheppard is out of bed," said Mckay.

Sheppard managed to prod him in the side with what energy he had and Beckett just looked at the two, "When you've got to go," he said walking towards them.

Shepard swallowed now, "Beckett, I disobeyed orders. I got out of bed when i was meant to be resting and I tried to walk to the bathroom….by myself."

He waited for the inevitable onslaught, but it never came.

"I'll take you to the bathroom," said Beckett getting a wheel chair and bringing it over.

"Why isnt he shouting at you?" whispered Mckay and Sheppard simply shrugged, "What the hells wrong with you?" Mckay suddenly said louder.

Beckett made Sheppard get into the chair and he looked up at Mckay with a confused expression on his face, "What are you talking about Rodney?"

"Oh come on. Usually you're busting a vessel lecturing about the importance of bed rest etc," he said.

Sheppard looked up at the two men. His head was still swimming and all he wanted to do was get to the bathroom, get out, and go to sleep. He held a finger up and was about to talk when –

"Rodney, I don't have the energy to lecture at the moment," said Beckett leaning on the wheel chair.

Sheppard reached up for McKay's arm but it moved away before he could grab it, "Uh-" he got out before they continued to talk.

"Oh my god, you're broken," said Mckay all of a sudden.

Sheppard was feeling distinctly unwell. His head was aching, his side was aching, his ribs were aching, his teeth were aching, his bladder was………He really needed to go.

"I'm not broken, bloody hell," muttered Beckett tiredly.

"You are," said Mckay glancing down at Sheppard, "You broke him with your _nearly_ dying."

"It wasn't me. It was my appendix," he defended.

"You're the owner of that appendix," said Mckay.

Sheppard's eyes widened and he was about to talk and remind them that he really needed the bathroom when Beckett was laughing.

"I'm tired Rodney. I've had a stressful day, but I'm okay."

He was stressed, Sheppard thought, I'm stressed now.

"Then why aren't you shouting at him," said Mckay pointing an accusatory finger in his direction.

"You want me to shout at him?" questioned Beckett.

Sheppard was now getting tired and pissed off. Woops, piss was not the word he wanted to use right now, "Guys?"

"Yeah, tell him off for getting out of bed. Tell him moving will aggravate his wound and –"

"It _will_ aggravate the wound and his ribs, not to mention he's exhausted."

Sheppard clenched his hands together, "Guys," he said again.

"Its not normal, you not shouting," said Mckay.

"Oh thanks," said Beckett, "Glad to see i'm remembered for that."

"You're a good Doctor too," said Mckay patting Beckett on the back.

Beckett was blushing now and realised that Mckay was only checking on his well being.

"Guys!" Sheppard all of a sudden snapped and two sets of eyes looked down at him. "Bathroom," he said through gritted teeth.

Beckett and McKay's eyes both widened and Beckett hastily pushed the wheelchair to the toilets.

"You need a hand?" asked Mckay.

He waited for a response from Sheppard but then he realised what he had said.

"No," said Sheppard firmly, "I definitely do _not_ need a hand, with _anything_."

He pushed himself out of the chair and disappeared into a cubicle.

--------

_There you go. Hope you enjoyed._


	5. Chapter 5

**A few days later:**

Sheppard opened his eyes and groaned. He was so incredibly bored in the infirmary and yet that boredom had transferred into a serious case of lethargy which meant he was too tired to actually move and do anything to alleviate said boredom.

Mckay and Elizabeth were making regular visits to him, but he still craved the activity of his job. He would kill for an off-world mission with a botanist right now, and that was saying something. God he must be delirious.

He rolled over onto his side and found his hand going to his stomach again. It still hurt him every time he moved and Beckett had said that cutting through the abdominal wall without proficient relaxants had meant he was bruised internally.

Sheppard sighed and reached for his earpiece. He shoved it in and said, "Hello, anybody there?"

There was static as the reply and he curled his lips down into a scowl, "Mckay? Rodney, hello?"

Static again and he rolled over onto his back, "What?" the disgruntled reply called out.

Sheppard smiled and massaged at the ache in his side, "Whatcha doin?" he asked and reached for his water.

"I'm working," the curt reply came and Sheppard took a long drink of water.

"On what?"

"On work," snapped Mckay, "What are you doing?"

Sheppard smiled again as he could feel the tension of Rodney's voice increase, "Funny Mckay, very funny."

"How astute, look is there anything important you want to discuss or are you just trying to annoy me?"

Sheppard sighed, "I'm bored."

"Bored," snorted Mckay, "That figures."

"Yeah well, I'm the only one in the infirmary. That guy we thought might be staying for a while just had a mild concussion…he didn't stay long."

"And there you thought you had a friend for life," said Mckay.

"Yeah, I keep hoping other people will get sick just so I can talk to them," he said sadly, "Mckay?" He waited a beat and then tried again, "Rodney?" Static came over the comms and he tried again, "Helllloooooo?"

Great. Now Mckay didn't want to talk to him.

He deactivated his radio and waited for a few minutes.

That had been odd.

As if to answer his thought, Atlantis's alarm suddenly began to blare over head and he rubbed his eyes for a moment to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

That he wasn't in the clutches of a delusional visage.

Sheppard pulled back the covers of his bed and waited a minute.

Beckett ran out of his office and was obviously listening to someone on his own radio, he turned seeing Sheppard getting ready to move and put a hand up, "You're not going anywhere," he said listening to the voice on the other end.

"Like hell I am," said Sheppard jumping up onto his feet. He staggered a few steps and then sat in the chair usually occupied by Mckay, "Like hell I am," he said more quietly and rubbed the dizziness out of his brain.

"Get back into bed," snapped Beckett. His eyes were darting around wildly as if waiting for something and that's when the pacing began.

"What's going on?" said Sheppard.

Beckett caught his eyes and swallowed thickly.

"I'll find out either way," said Sheppard now getting a headache from the constant alarm over head.

"We have a wraith in the city," said Beckett, his fists clenched, shoulders tensed.

"What?" said Sheppard standing up and immediately regretting it, "And nobody told me."

"I'm telling you, "said Beckett.

He disappeared into his office for a moment and then reappeared with Sheppard's calf holster and his own weapon.

He threw it at Sheppard and he was surprised when he actually caught it. It was mostly instinct as if he had missed it would have caught him in the face.

"You stay here," said Beckett, "We're both staying here," he corrected.

Sheppard cocked the gun and checked the mag, "Major Lorne," Sheppard said activating his radio, "Major Lorne..is this thing working?" Sheppard snapped and pulled out his earpiece and dizzily began to inspect it.

"Its not broken," muttered Beckett.

He walked over to the doorway and peered out, just as the lights went down.

"How do you know?" said Sheppard.

A flashlight was turned on and pointed in his face, "Control purposefully knocked out your radio."

"Why?" asked Sheppard angrily.

Beckett appeared to hesitate before he answered and then he said quickly, "Because they knew you would try something like this. They knew you would want to take a team out to find the wraith."

"Of course I do," said Sheppard pushing a hand through his hair.

"Doctor Weir was concerned for you. You have to recover from-"

"So you were talking to Elizabeth on the radio?" asked Sheppard and took a clumsy step forward. He reached for Beckett's radio and pushed it into his own ear, "Elizabeth, what's our status?" he asked not taking his eyes off Beckett.

"Sheppard?"

She sounded surprised and Sheppard ploughed on ahead, "I'm the commanding Officer of this base. Now the personnel are threatened and I need to know what's going on." His voice sounded shaky to him and he could feel the adrenaline begin to surge through his body, fuelling his aches and pains further.

"Major Lorne is handling this. We have a company headed out to the east perimeter where the wraith beamed in and-"

"He beamed in?" questioned Sheppard and his hand was up at his side again, "Why didn't you detect it as incoming?"

"It was on the sensor readings from the other day when Zelenka shut down command. It's only just come through." Elizabeth was saying.

Sheppard shook his head, "The east pier, that's where Rodney's lab is isn't it?"

The response was slow and he knew that Elizabeth was reluctant to answer, mainly because she knew what his response would be, "Yes."

"I'm going out there," he said cocking his weapon.

"No you're not!" Both Beckett and Elizabeth said in unison.

Sheppard ground his teeth and bit back a smart response, "I have to," he said hearing his voice waver.

"Major," she started to say.

"I wont let you go," said Beckett holding his hands out in front of him, "You're not up to it."

Sheppard shook his head, "I'm good to go. Just give me a shot of morphine and send me out there." He knew he was sounding ridiculous but he couldn't just sit there and wait. "I'm going with or without your approval. I cant sit here and do nothing."

Beckett nodded and walked across the room over to where he kept his drugs. He returned moments later with a full syringe and Sheppard held out his arm for him, "Thank you," he said and clicked his radio, "Elizabeth, I'm heading out now."

"You're not Major. Stay where you are. Major Lorne has it under control."

Sheppard shook his head and took a step forward, "You cant stop me," the words came out slurred and his tongue felt strange. He blinked a few times against a wave of grey and looked over to Beckett, "What?"

Beckett looked apologetic, and Sheppard slid to the ground and into yet more darkness.

------------

Sheppard opened his eyes and blinked away the cobwebs in an instant. He felt groggy and strange but he got out of bed and stood unsteadily, marching over to where his gun was on the chair next to his bed, "Beckett, you bastard," he mumbled under his breath. He closed his eyes for a second and then opening them scanned the room. Beckett was nowhere to be seen.

He peered out into the hallway to see that everything was still dark and everywhere deathly silent.

He couldn't have been out too long and he was sure that Beckett wouldn't have been malicious enough to give him that much.

Sheppard cursed his lack of radio and lack of human contact.

He stepped out into the corridor and shook his head at both the ridiculousness and the pure stupidity of the situation. He was barefoot, dressed in bright red scrubs, walking through a drug induced haze with only a 9mil at his disposal. If he came up against the wraith right now, he was pretty sure he would simply laugh at him.

Sheppard rounded the corridor and held his weapon out in front of him as steady as he could. It turned out he had a new lease of life, and though his heart pounded in his ears he could feel some strength returning.

As he walked he suddenly could hear something coming towards him, footfalls, very quick footfalls. As he stopped to find the source of the noise, he could feel the hairs raising on the back of his neck.

A small figure was running towards him and when he could finally see who it was, he recognised the five year old as a friend of Jinto's. The young boy on seeing Sheppard ran straight into him and hugged him.

Sheppard groaned, as the youngster had wrapped his hands around his appendix wound and was squeezing very tightly.

"You okay/" he asked. His eyes were watering and he had to shake the limpet of a child off him, "Hey, you alright?"

The youngster nodded and wiped at tearful eyes.

"Okay," Sheppard looked around the corridor and felt like cursing, "Okay, it looks like you're coming with me," he said. "What's your name?"

"Akas," he replied.

"Okay, stay close to me and be quiet. Can you do that?"

Akas nodded.

Sheppard walked forward and felt Akas grab him by the back of his scrubs top and following him behind.

Sheppard had just reached the end of the corridor when he nearly tripped over the body on the floor.

It turned out it wasn't a body at all.

It was Beckett crouching on the floor and staring around the corner.

He looked up, pointing a gun at Sheppard and sighed with relief when he spotted the boy, "I told you to stay with me," he said and Akas reached for his hand, "Major?"

Sheppard nodded, "Thanks for the knockout," he said, "What's going on?"

Beckett swallowed and Sheppard could see that his hands were trembling, "The wraith is in this sector of the city but they lost it on the scanners. Major Lorne and a team have scattered. They told me to stay here."

"You left me in the infirmary on my own?" asked Sheppard.

Beckett shook his head, "No, there was a guy stationed outside."

Sheppard felt his eyes open wide, "There was no guy just then."

Beckett knew the implications of that statement, "No guy?"

Sheppard stood up straight, winced, and pulled the P90 out of Beckett's hand, "Has anyone else been hurt?"

Beckett shook his head, "Rodney wasn't in his lab." He knew that that was what Sheppard had really been asking.

"Good," Sheppard took off the safety, "I'm going to have a look down that corridor, you stay here."

"You'll need back up," said Beckett though his face conveyed total fear.

Sheppard placed a hand on his shoulder and passed him his 9mil, "You need to stay here with Akas. I'll be right back."

Beckett nodded and watched as Sheppard disappeared down the hall.

-----

Sheppard on approaching the infirmary could now see the guy lying on the floor and he kicked himself for not having seeing it earlier.

His chest had been torn open and blood still fell from the open wound. His face was contorted in a look of terror, eyes still bulging out and Sheppard fighting a wave of dizziness turned away to catch his breath.

When he turned he hadn't realised the approach from behind and a wraith was standing in front of him and sneering.

Sheppard bought his hand up and only managed to fire off a few rounds before the wraith bought his hand up to his chest and gave him an almighty shove.

He reeled backwards, his back connecting with the opposite wall and his side protesting against every movement. He barely managed to conceal his pain and his gag reflex before shakily getting to his feet and pointing the weapon up again.

He cursed the morphine reeking havoc through his system and had to blink a couple of times to clear his vision.

The wraith was advancing on him, "You thought you could come into my city huh?" said Sheppard breathlessly as he stood.

The wraith didn't seem to understand the concept of conversation and instead he settled for lunging forward. Sheppard felt his hand connect with his chest and bare fingers over his heart before he could react.

The wraith had ripped his shirt open and he hadn't even noticed.

Sheppard groaned and just at that moment felt his stomach give way, and considering the way today was advancing he didn't fight it, and he threw up. He inwardly cheered when it went all over the wraiths arm and he withdrew it disgustedly.

Sheppard dropped to the ground as his stomach lurched again as he felt for his gun. His fingers wrapped around the trigger and he bought it up, spraying 90 bullets into the Wraiths chest. It dropped to the ground beside him and they both knelt opposite each other, sharing a silent conversation. Both of them were swaying and Sheppard was searching the wraiths eyes for any kind on humanity.

Its eyes were a hollow passage. Nothing of humanity lay within.

It tried to make one final grasp out for Sheppard and contently lashed out with its clawed hand.

Sheppard felt it cross his abdomen and he looked down to his now reopened appendix scar. He sighed, summoned as much strength as he could and slugged the wraith across the face.

It was about to hit him back when more bullets from behind sealed its fate and it dropped to the ground. Dead.

Sheppard looked up to see Beckett and Lorne with a company of men barrelling towards him.

He sat back in the dark against the wall and closed his eyes.

Beckett was kneeling beside him and checking him over, "How do you feel?" he asked nervously sliding his eyes in the direction of the dead wraith.

Sheppard cracked one eye open and gave him a look which told him,. 'stupid question'

Sheppard could see that Beckett's eyes were drawn to his chest and Sheppard looked down.

He had bruises over his heart where the wraith had pressed to begin feeding. Thankfully it was only superficial and the wraith hadn't actually fed, but it was all too real.

Sheppard coughed against a pain that radiated in his side again and he groaned, "That bastard ripped my stitches,"

Beckett nodded, "Aye, he did," he said.

"And he broke my broken rib," said Sheppard feeling the adrenaline surge begin to dissipate.

"I think he paid for it," he said.

Beckett helped him up into a standing position and they stepped over the fallen wraith.

Sheppard stopped their movement and turned to Lorne, "Good work there Major. You saved my hide." He gave the wraith a kick, "Make sure you bag him up and do a sweep pf the city to make sure there's just one of these guys," he started to walk and then said, "Oh and tell Elizabeth I wont be moving from my bed for a while." He felt his eyes closing, "For a long while."

"Yes Sir," said Lorne.

As Sheppard was lowered back on to the bed, Beckett began to make his checks again.

"You didn't listen to me," said Beckett putting gauze over his reopened wound.

Sheppard's eyes were slipping closed, "I know,"

Beckett watched him as he started to fall away from him, "Thank you," said Beckett.

"I was just doing my job," said Sheppard.

Beckett patted him on the shoulder and watched as he fell away from him.

_I wrote more, just cant help it._

_Bare in mind this was written at four o clock in the AM so it may be a bit weird._


	6. Chapter 6

_Here you go a bit more. I will have to stop at some point. This was only meant to be a short one! I'll have you know all of your encouragements has spurned me to keep typing!_

"Where's Rodney?" asked Sheppard for the millionth time since waking up.

Beckett gave him a sharp look and continued to make his vital checks.

He stopped to take Sheppard's pulse, "I'm alive," he said wrenching his hand away and sighing, "Beckett, you haven't answered me."

Beckett picked up his chart and gave him a look, "Calm down Major, your blood pressure is through the roof."

Sheppard pushed the covers off him and kicked them to the end of the bed, "I'm hot," he said at Beckett's look, "You want to be a good Doctor. Tell me where Rodney is and my blood pressure will go back down."

He didn't miss the pained expression that crossed Beckett's expression. He couldn't decide whether it was to his snarky remark about him being a 'good doctor', or whether it had something to do with Mckay.

Sheppard was about to say something when Elizabeth walked into the room.

She smiled when she saw that Sheppard was okay, after his heroics, she thought he may have done himself more damage than good.

"How are you feeling Major?" she asked and gave Beckett a pat on the shoulder.

Sheppard sighed, "I want to know where Rodney is."

Elizabeth exchanged glances with Beckett.

"Would somebody tell me what's going on?" snapped Sheppard and he looked at the two for an explanation.

"Rodney is missing," said Elizabeth. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at him with an expression laced with nerves and worry.

"Missing?" asked Sheppard and he was already moving towards the edge of the bed.

"Yes."

"What the hells been going on around here," said Sheppard. He was feeling well and truly out of the loop.

He was an integral part of that loop, so he needed to know what was happening.

"The wraith dart that flew over only beamed in one wraith. We think it was going to sabotage the city internally. As you know Teyla and Ford have been off-world for a number of days negotiating a trade on Mx676. We could have used Teyla around, perhaps she would have sensed them coming." She shrugged and then continued, "Zelenka seems to think that when the systems shut down, the information about the incoming wraith dart, was deliberately suppressed in the system."

"So we only knew about it when it was actually happening," Sheppard finished for her. He sighed and found himself rubbing his bruised chest.

"We therefore suspect, that it was an inside job." She paused and looked around the room nervously. Something had obviously got her on edge.

Beckett placed the chart back down on the end of the bed and started to pull the covers up over Sheppard again. Sheppard gripped him by the wrist to stop him and slid off the bed, "Rodney cant have just disappeared," said Sheppard.

Elizabeth put a hand on his shoulder to steady him and Beckett was already putting his hands on his hips to show he wasn't pleased about Sheppard being upright.

"We have had a team doing sweeps of the sector ever since the wraith was caught. Thank you by the way," she let their eyes meet for a moment before continuing, "We found his radio in his lab, broken, but no sign of him."

"Well I'm going to have a look down there," said Sheppard reaching for his own ear piece on the side table.

Elizabeth looked at the recalcitrant Major and sighed. She knew that when it came to Mckay she wouldn't be able to stop him from trying to protect him. After all, their banter was just a cover for the fact that the two didn't want to admit they were friends. Good friends at that.

"Doctor Weir, he's not recovered," said Beckett, but he knew that his words were falling on deaf ears.

Sheppard looked over to Beckett and pleaded him to let him go.

Beckett folded far too quickly for his liking and he couldn't help but think that Beckett was still harbouring some guilt about his current condition. Enough so that he was willing to give Sheppard some lee way for a change.

"I'll go with you," said Beckett.

Sheppard knew that this was the only outcome. They certainly weren't going to let him go on his own.

"Be careful," said Elizabeth giving his hand a squeeze as Beckett disappeared to retrieve him some clothes.

"I will," said Sheppard, "And I'll bring Rodney back."

-----------

Sheppard entered Rodney's lab, Beckett following close behind, and gave the military company who were there already a firm nod.

"Anything?" asked Sheppard.

Major Lorne shook his head.

"How about you go check out the next section, we'll have another look around here." Lorne nodded and took off with his men. Their previous activity now left the lab seeming even more quiet and somewhat creepy.

Beckett, who had bought a long his medical bag, was huffing and puffing as he walked over to McKay's lab stool and put the bag down.

Sheppard, now dressed, in his comfortable trousers and black t-shirt wandered around the lab, trying to look for any clue as to where Mckay could be.

He couldn't help but not pick up the strange devices that were laid out on the table and wondered if one of them was responsible. Each one he touched either glowed or emitted a strange noise, but other than that, nothing miraculous happened.

"Have you seen this?" asked Beckett. He was leaning over McKay's laptop and peering at the equations.

Sheppard leaned down next to him and read the equations. He grabbed the mouse and moved it over one, highlighted it, deleted it and then re-typed the correct answer.

"What are you doing?" asked Beckett.

Sheppard smiled and pointed at the screen, "That one was wrong." He gave the Doc a feigned hurt look, "I was just being helpful."

"Being a bloody nuisance more like," said Beckett turning back to the room and scanning it over. "He's not here."

Sheppard continued to walk around again, hoping he would find something to say different.

He reached up to his throbbing side and cursed his P90 for not being a more comfortable shape. Every time he did anything but stand straight, the butt would push into his abdomen and aggravate the extensive bruising he had there.

"How are you doing?" asked Beckett on seeing the Majors obvious suffering.

Sheppard looked over to him and winced, "I'll be okay when we've found Mckay."

"Do you want some painkillers?" asked Beckett and he was already reaching into his bag.

Sheppard decided it couldn't hurt and he walked over to Beckett.

Beckett dropped a couple of tablets into his hand, but Sheppard's hand was uncharacteristically shaky and the pills dropped to the floor and rolled away from him. "AW crap!" he muttered and bent down on all fours to search for them.

"I'll get them," said Beckett.

Sheppard looked up at him and groaned, "Don't be ridiculous, I'm down here now. I'll get them," he let his hand roam the floor, "I'm not an invalid," he said.

His hand moved across the floor until all of a sudden he could feel a small hole. He pushed his finger into it and could feel cool air below.

"What?" asked Beckett on seeing his expression.

Sheppard pushed the unit he was searching under away from the wall and pointed. Their was a circular grate, similar to a manhole.

"What the hell?" asked Beckett.

Sheppard got down onto his knees again and tried to pull at the grate, "Help me with this will ya."

Beckett bent down next to him and they managed to get a small amount of grip to start it lifting from its lip, "You don't think he's down there," he muttered as they pulled it to the side.

Sheppard pointed to a power bar wrapper that had been caught between the grate and the lip, "I know he is."

"Rodney!" Beckett put his head down the hole and started to shout.

Sheppard hauled him back and gave him a little slap on the back of his head. "He might not be alone," he said.

He put his legs over the edge and was relieved when one caught on the rung of a ladder.

"You're not going down there," said Beckett glancing over his shoulder.

"I'm just going to take a look. I wont be long."

"You're exhausted," said Beckett, "You're not up for clambering around in the dark. What if something happens to you?" He gave Sheppard a flustered look and realised that he wasn't going to sway the man. He could be so stubborn occasionally.

"Well Doc, you could always come with me," he quirked an eyebrow and waited for a response.

"I'll wait up here, but stay in radio contact..and don't go too far."

Sheppard nodded, "Let Major Lorne know I'm down here," he said and started to descend the ladder.

Once at the bottom, he switched on his P90 flashlight and gave the room a cursory sweep. It was just a metallic laden room, but there was a corridor leading off from it.

He considered telling Beckett but a noise down the corridor made him charge down the dark passageway to find its source.

It was damp and cold and his breath came out in a mist. He could feel goose bumps raising on his arms and he gave an involuntary shiver as he proceeded towards the noise. He tried to slow his breathing, so he could hear more clearly. The strain of the slow breaths only served to put more pressure on his ribs and he found himself coughing and spluttering out loud. He cursed as his cough echoed down the continuing corridors and stopped dead.

He could hear a scuffle up ahead and ignoring his own pain he started to sprint as fast as he could. His legs were burning with the effort and every pain exacerbated by the movement but he could hear Mckay now in the distance.

He rounded a corner just in time to see a figure sliding down one of the walls.

Sheppard ran over to him and skidded to a stop in front of him, "Rodney?"

Mckay pulled a hand away from his face, revealing a bloody cut on his forehead, and he sighed, "Oh thank god."

"Are you alone?" Sheppard asked activating his radio. All he got was static.

Mckay shook his head, "He took off that way," he said swallowing. "How did you find me?"

"I found a power bar wrapper," said Sheppard and he smiled briefly, "I thought you were just ignoring me before."

Mckay shook his head and seemed to regret it, "No, some guy I've never seen before grabbed me and bought me down here."

"What guy?"

"I don't know," snapped Mckay, he was visibly shaking and he tried to stand up. "But he was the one who disguised the readings so we wouldn't know the wraith was coming." He leant against the wall and rubbed the haziness out of his brain.

"Yeah Weir just told me," said Sheppard. "Do you think you can find the way out?"

Mckay shook his head, "You're not going after him."

Sheppard found himself rubbing at his head now, "He's running around down here. I need to get him."

Mckay grabbed Sheppard by his arm, "Lets just get out of here and worry about it later."

Sheppard wasn't having any of it, "Mckay, we couldn't pick you up on life sign scans down here, we need to get him whilst we knew where he is."

McKay's eyes suddenly widened, "Turn around," he said quickly.

"I'm not going back yet Mckay and I'm not going to argue with you about this."

Mckay shook his head and mouthed, "No," he gripped Sheppard's arm tighter, "Turn aro-"

Sheppard got the message but it was too late and something connected with the back of his skull. He landed face forward and felt his P90 loosen from his grip. He managed to roll over onto his back and he stared up at the silhouette of a man he had never seen before. He tried to blink out the darkness but he was reacting too slow and the figure jumped on top of him, one knee in his side, his hands around his throat.

"Mc-Ka…..y" he said over the blood pumping through his ears.

The figure on top was hit from behind and he fell to the floor beside Sheppard.

McKay's hands were wrapping around his and pulling him up into a standing position, "You're not up for this and you know your not," said Mckay.

Sheppard looked down at the fallen figure. His head was spinning and he was too late to react when a hand caught his ankle and he keeled backwards again. He landed on his backside hard and felt his rib cage jar. He groaned out and instinctively grabbed his side.

He waited for the onslaught of another attack but instead heard the sound of bullets.

When he looked up he saw Mckay holding his P90, and the body of a man lying at his feet. Hands outstretched, one holding a knife.

"That was easy," rasped Sheppard.

"It was just a man," said Mckay shakily.

Mckay looked over to Sheppard, then to the body and finally to the gun in his hand, "Oh God," he said and dropped it to the ground. He followed and fell to his knees.

Sheppard summoned all the energy he had and crawled over to McKay. He gave his shoulder a squeeze, "It's okay," he said as Mckay continued to stare at the body.

"I killed a man," said Mckay quietly, "Oh my god." His hands were shaking and his breathing was beginning to sound strange and noisy.

"Calm down Mckay. He would have killed you."

Mckay was breathing quick and in shallow breaths. It was evident that not enough oxygen was reaching his lungs and he turned to Sheppard with wide eyes, "Calm down," he said and tried to breath slowly.

"What's wrong with you?" asked Sheppard getting Mckay to sit on the ground.

Mckay was having problems breathing, "I cant breathe," he said.

"You're hyperventilating," said Sheppard.

"No im not. Im having an asthma attack."

"You have asthma?" asked Sheppard and he found himself getting into a crouching position.

"Did…have…..when…..I was a kid………..it….flares up…sometimes…when…..im….stressed," he caught Sheppard's eyes.

"Okay," said Sheppard getting up to his feet, "I'll go get help."

Sheppard managed to get up to his feet and he started in the direction he had previously come in. He used the walls for extra support and could feel the slick blood running down the back of his neck. All in all, he was totally wrecked and this time he would definitely stay in bed.

When he neared the manhole he could hear his earpiece crackle to life and three sets of voices were calling at him all at once, "Beckett get down here, Rodney's injured, Elizabeth I'm fine, we caught the guy, Lorne, get a recovery team down here. I have another body for you."

------

When Beckett and team headed down the dark passageways they found Sheppard and Mckay sat beside each other. Both men were panting hard and trying to keep each other upright. Both men looked visibly relieved when Beckett called for some gurneys.

------------

Sheppard was lying back in the infirmary bed, covers wrapped tightly around him, head nuzzled into his pillow. He was also blanketed by the warmth of morphine.

Mckay was in the bed next to his and he too was smiling like an idiot.

"This is the life huh?" said Sheppard rolling onto his side and seeking out Mckay.

Mckay nodded, "I cant believe I had an asthma attack," he said crossing his arms.

Sheppard smiled, "And you thought my appendicitis was lame."

Beckett walked into the infirmary and looked at the two men who were drugged up to the eyeballs, "How are you two doing?"

Sheppard snorted, "My appendix hated me," he said.

"And my lungs have it in for me," said Mckay.

Both men looked at each other and grinned.

Beckett sighed and wandered over to McKay's bed, "You're breathing seems much better now."

Mckay nodded, "Yeah I feel much better."

"Elizabeth," said Sheppard as she walked into the room. She had a grim expression on her face and Sheppard could feel yet again that she was obviously stressed.

"I'm fine, before you ask," said Sheppard sitting up in bed and stretching. He curled inwards instantly, obviously forgetting all of his injuries, and looked up at her sheepishly.

"And you Rodney?" she asked.

Mckay nodded, "Yeah. Alls well that ends well and all that."

Elizabeth was bouncing up and down on her heels nervously.

"Did you ID that guy?" asked Sheppard.

Elizabeth shook her head, "He's not on our records."

"How can that be?" asked Mckay pushing Beckett away from him and leaning forward, "Atlantis' database extensively documents our staff."

"I know," said Elizabeth with a chill.

"Well then where did he come from?"

Elizabeth licked her lips, "He hasn't ever come through from an offworld expedition and he definitely didn't come from earth so-" she paused.

"That means he was already here in Atlantis when we arrived," finished McKay.

Elizabeth nodded, "We think he was living under the city," she said hugging herself.

"Who knows how much information he could have leaked to the wraith," said Mckay, "He was obviously working for them."

Elizabeth agreed, "We have men working on it."

"I need to work on it," said Mckay jumping out of bed.

"Zelenka seems positive that he only suppressed information of the incoming dart and nothing else."

"I hope so," said Mckay. He walked dizzily towards the door and Sheppard smiled when he saw that Mckay had forgotten he was wearing a backless gown.

"Everything is under control," said Elizabeth firmly.

"I didn't think it wasn't," said Sheppard.

Elizabeth smiled, "Good."

Sheppard leant back in his bed and closed his eyes, "Wake me up if anything else happens."

"It wont," said Elizabeth, "That man is dead. There's no one else. We have done a sweep of the underground sectors. No more information was sent."

"You hope,"

"So now I want you to rest."

"Me too," said Beckett.

Sheppard nodded. He couldn't fight the pull of sleep any more.

Mckay was alive and well and the city as once more safe.

He let himself be dragged into unconsciousness.

_Ah I cant stop!_


	7. Chapter 7

Days had passed and a hive of activity in the base had meant he had gone unvisited and quite possibly forgotten.

He had heard over his now working radio that they were still searching underneath Atlantis, in the hopes of finding where exactly this man had been living. Also, there had been a rigorous over haul of the whole computer system to find out if any information had been sent out to the wraith, or indeed, any other party.

On the upside, Sheppard's side was feeling much better and now he only had his broken rib to deal with. Oh, and the mind numbing boredom that ensued.

He found his himself smiling when one of the nurses walked into the room. She returned the smile and started to go through various supplies.

"Hey," said Sheppard with a wave.

The nurse turned to him and gave him a curt nod before turning back round to her stock take.

"Anything happening out there of interest?" he asked plucking at the bed covers.

The nurse didn't answer.

"Stupid question right," he said, more to himself, "I mean some weird guy has been living under the city all this time, I bet everyone's talking about it."

Again she continued to write on a chart.

Sheppard sighed and looked down to his feet, "Yeah, it's all happening," he said lamely.

"You talking to yourself?"

Sheppard snapped his eyes up to see Mckay stood in the doorway and that the nurse had gone.

"I was talking to-" Mckay raised a quizzical eyebrow at him and he sighed, "Never mind. What are you doing here?"

Mckay strode into the room and leant against the bed, "I thought I would just check up on you," he said.

"Oh right," said Sheppard, "Well as you can see, I'm having a ball." He looked up to Mckay and could see that his eyes betrayed the smile on his lips, "Are you okay?"

Mckay snorted, "Me, I'm fine."

"Okay," said Sheppard.

"I mean he was crazy right? He was going to kill me and you. He had a knife," he started to ramble.

"I know," said Sheppard, "You did good."

Mckay caught his eyes for a moment and nodded, "Yes, well I didn't come here about that. I have come to give you an update, but its on condition that you stay in bed."

Sheppard narrowed his eyes and looked up at Mckay. He knew that whatever he was going to tell him was going to be interesting and he also knew that Mckay would tell him anyway, even if it meant him getting out of bed.

"Well?"

"We found a room under the city," said Mckay with a wide grin.

"Where he was living?"

"Yeah and there's so much stuff to go through." He said, "This guy looks totally wacko."

Sheppard could feel his legs tensing and his fingers reaching for the edge of the covers, "So you're just going to go down there and do some light research?" he asked.

Mckay nodded, "Yeah."

"Nothing strenuous?" asked Sheppard with a glint in his eye.

Mckay smiled, "I wouldn't call sitting on my ass reading stren…." He realised what Sheppard was getting at and put up his hands, "No, no, no, you're not coming with me."

"Oh come on. I've been stuck in here for days with no exercise. I'm going to lose my mind if I don't do something."

"Beckett wont let you go down there," said Mckay folding his arms across his chest and smiling smugly.

Sheppard felt his smile wavering and he realised the Beckett probably wouldn't let him go down there. "But I feel fine," he said.

Speaking of the devil, Beckett walked into the infirmary and gave the two men a smirk.

"Beckett," started Sheppard and he nervously plucked at the bedcovers again, "Mckay has made a discovery under the city and-"

Beckett walked over to his bed, "I know, I heard," he said turning to Mckay, "I hear this guys room is really creepy."

Sheppard sighed and looked between the two men.

Mckay nodded, "You should see some of the stuff down there. This guy was a real nut job."

Sheppard groaned, "Can I go?" he asked.

Beckett picked up his chart and had a look over it, "How's your side feeling?"

Sheppard gave it a prod for effect, "No longer hurts."

"And the ribs?" asked Beckett,

Sheppard moved stiffly from left to right, "I'm getting some returning movement," he said hopefully.

"And your head?" he asked putting the chart back down.

"Great, so does that mean I can-"

Beckett looked him straight in the eyes and said, "No."

Sheppard sighed and leant back against his pillow.

Mckay looked at his watch, "I better get going," he said.

Sheppard pouted and crossed his arms over his chest like a belligerent child.

"Oh, no more than an hour," said Beckett.

Mckay stopped mid stride and Sheppard shot back into a sitting position as they both said, "What?"

Beckett put his hands on his hips, "Everything's healing nicely, just don't do anything strenuous and make sure you're back here in an hour," he said.

Sheppard didn't need to be told twice and he pushed his way off his bed.

-----------------

Sheppard had felt much better once he was kitted out in his usual attire.

The room had been quite a way from the man hole, as it would seem that Mckay had underestimated how long it would take for them to get there.

They entered the mans room. Lights had been set up for better illumination, but it looked untouched.

"I told no-one to touch it," said Mckay on seeing his expression.

Sheppard nodded and scanned the room, his P90 trained forward all the while.

It was like a metallic box. There was no window and there were a pile of rags in the corner that seemed to be a bed. On his left there was some panelling rigged up with wires and some kind of low tech computer. To his right were piles and piles of books and pictures up on the wall.

He took a step forward and inspected the picture before him. He recognised immediately the subject matter and turned to Mckay, "Hey, have you seen this?" he asked.

Mckay joined him at his side and his eyes went wide, "Is that a wraith?"

Sheppard nodded and indicated to all of the pictures on the wall, "They're all of the wraith." He turned to Mckay, "Creepy huh?"

Mckay swallowed the lump in his throat, "Lets make this quick."

Sheppard put his flashlight under his chin and said in a ghostly voice, "Are you scared?"

Mckay slapped the light away from under his chin and pointed at a mound of books, "You have a look in those and I'm going to look at this…."he pointed to the computer, "…computer?" He had bought his own laptop with him and proceeded to start connecting the two.

Sheppard wandered over to a mountain of books and sat himself down in a chair, "How did this guy survive down here?" he asked picking up a dusty book.

Mckay had his flashlight in his mouth as he tried to waggle different connectors and said, "O ows?"

"What?"

Mckay pulled the flashlight out of his mouth, "I said, who knows."

"Where was he getting his food for one?" asked Sheppard opening one of the books and reading a few passages.

There were yet more illustrations of the wraith and some language he had ever seen before, but, which looked vaguely familiar, "Hey McKay, you seen this?"

Mckay got up and walked over to him, snatching the book from his hands and raising his eyebrows, "That's wraith," he said passing the book back to him and going back to his work.

"Wraith?" asked Sheppard and he shook his head, "Most of these books have illustrations and……" he picked up another book and read a few passages, "This one tells of the heroics of the wraith," he said after a while.

Mckay laughed as he worked, "This guy was crazy."

Sheppard turned back to him and felt the distant pull on his ribs, "Ya think?"

"I guess he was a closet fan," said Mckay finally getting his laptop linked.

As the screen burst to light, Sheppard said, "Closet is right," he said looking around the room.

They worked in silence for what must have been more than an hour with Mckay typing away at his keyboard and Sheppard reading through the various books and trying to gleam some kind of insight into the man who had obviously been obsessed with them.

His interest was peaked further when he saw a journal of sorts and started flicking through the pages with increased speed.

He didn't notice Mckay had stepped up behind him and nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt hands on his shoulders. He twisted around too quickly and felt his ribs tug.

"Are you trying to kill me?" he asked holding his sore ribs.

Mckay just shrugged, "Sorry."

"You found anything?" asked Sheppard.

"He's been compiling some kind of database, but its just that. There's no evidence of any information being sent out to anyone."

"So what did he send?"

"He just gave out our coordinates to a nearby wraith dart." Mckay leant on the back of the chair, "What I don't understand is why would he do that?"

Sheppard closed the journal abruptly and held it up to Mckay, "I do."

Mckay rolled his eyes when Sheppard didn't continue, "Care to share."

"This guy worshipped the wraith, and I mean _worshipped_. His life seems devoted to them." He paused and then stood up, "There's reference in that journal to a gate address where he says '_his right path started.'_"

"What does that mean?" asked Mckay opening the book and starting to look through it himself.

"I don't know, but I want to go there."

Mckay shook his head.

"Oh come on, aren't you intrigued?" asked Sheppard giving him a nudge.

Mckay pursed his lips and appeared to be thinking.

"You're intrigued. I can tell," said Sheppard with a broad smile, "Admit it."

Mckay passed the book back to him, "Okay, I'm a little bit interested, " he said, "Now lets pack up and get back to Beckett before he never lets you go anywhere ever again. Including that address."

------------------

When Sheppard got back to the infirmary it was dark and quiet and he quickly ran over to his bed. He started to undress and just as he was pulling off his t shirt he heard the lights come on. He peeked from out of his t shirt and saw Beckett was sat in the corner of the room on a chair, arms crossed and an expression of anger on his face.

Sheppard had his hands still up and tried to scramble out of it, but he found his ribs were now protesting the movement and he mumbled through the fabric, "Some help here."

Beckett walked over to him and helped the rest of his way out of the bothersome top.

Sheppard pulled on his scrubs top and tried not to look Beckett directly in the eye.

"You're late," said Beckett folding up Sheppard's top.

"I know," said Sheppard, "But we discovered something really interesting about that guy and-"

"You should still follow my orders or at least contact me over the radio."

"There's no signal down there," said Sheppard regretting it immediately.

Beckett sighed and pushed him towards the bed, "Rest," he said.

-------------------

_okay so this will continue for a little bit. _Just_ a little bit. I promise more whump too._.


	8. Chapter 8

Elizabeth walked into the infirmary and instantly looked over to the bed normally occupied by Sheppard.

_Normally_, because he wasn't in it.

Instead in his place were rumpled sheets and a dent in the bed where his Major posterior should be residing.

Beckett strode through from his office.

"Oh don't tell me he's gone walkabout again?" she said turning to him and giving him a sympathetic look.

Beckett was about to answer when Sheppard walked into the infirmary, dressed in normal clothes and a towel wrapped around his neck. His hair, she noticed, was still wet and water had collected on the edge of his nose.

She fought the overwhelming compulsion to stop it from dripping.

"I'm being discharged," he said taking the towel from around his neck and drying his hair further.

Elizabeth was somewhat disgruntled to see that his hair seemed impervious to water and it stuck up in its usual uncooperative way.

"Aye after I give you one more check over," said Beckett guiding him over to the bed.

Sheppard groaned but sat up on the bed in compliance, knowing he would have to go through this formality before he could leave anyway.

Elizabeth followed them, "You don't mind if I stay do you?" she asked, and Sheppard got the sense that she had more to talk to him about.

"Sure," he said as Beckett placed a blood pressure cuff over his arm, "Do you want to see my scar?" he asked raising a quizzical eyebrow and starting to lift his top proudly.

Elizabeth put a hand up and shook her head, "No thanks."

His face dropped and he continued to let Beckett poke and prod at him until he was certain he was well enough to leave.

"What's the verdict?" asked Elizabeth.

Sheppard jumped off the bed, "Hey the verdict hasn't changed. Has it Doc? You said I could go today," he whined.

"You're fine. Just take it easy for a while. No running around like a madman."

Sheppard nodded and clapped the Doctor on the back, "You wont be seeing me for a long while. I promise you," he said.

Beckett put on his most disbelieving face, "Aye, we'll see about that." And he disappeared over to another patient who had wandered in covering his hand in a towel and bemoaning that it was bleeding profusely.

Sheppard saw the cloth get taken off and concluded himself that it was just a scratch.

"Sheppard?"

"Huh?" he snapped back to reality to realise that Elizabeth had been talking to him and he had been ignoring her, "Sorry?"

They walked out of the corridors and Elizabeth noticed that Sheppard had a discernable spring in his step, "Mckay has been briefing me about your findings from a week ago," she moved to the side as a couple of Techs passed them.

"Yeah?" said Sheppard turning towards her and nearly walking into a member of personnel himself, "And?"

"I think the whole thing is pretty unnerving," she confessed as they approached a transporter, "But I'm certainly interested in finding out more. If only to stop them from trying something similar again."

"Them?" asked Sheppard.

"Well, I've looked over the translations written in wraith and from what Mckay and I can tell, it looks like he was writing it like that as a form of code," she paused to take a breath, "It refers to a sect who worship the wraith," she stated as the doors whooshed open to another corridor.

"What else does it say?"

"Not much else. Just that these people showed him the way." She shrugged.

"I want to take a team to that planet," said Sheppard as they approached their balcony.

Elizabeth went and leant against the railing whilst Sheppard hung back and waited for her answer, "I was considering sending a MALP through," she said turning to him.

Sheppard gave her his best lost puppy dog expression and waited for her inevitable crumble, "I think it would be worthwhile."

"That's what Rodney said," she said.

They stood in comfortable silence, both looking out towards the horizon and listening to the water below them lapping around the city.

Elizabeth finally turned to him, "You can go," she said quietly, "But I want you to take two companies and I want you to spend a maximum of 12 hours there."

Sheppard nodded and found his mouth turning upwards, "I knew you'd say yes," She gave him a look of warning and he backtracked, "I mean I knew you'd make the right decision." He stood staring at her for a moment and then said, "I'll go."

--------------------

It had taken four days for Beckett to clear Sheppard for off-world duties and it had taken a further couple of days to convince Elizabeth that 'now' was the right time to go.

It was finally crunch time and Sheppard was standing in front of the gate again. He felt a slight twinge in his non-existent appendix which reminded him of the last time he was here. His eyes found the point on the ground where he had endured essential, if not inconvenient, surgery.

He looked up to see Mckay ambling down the stairs and he shook his head,

Ford and Teyla were stood beside him and Lorne's team had already assembled for the off.

"Glad you could join us," said Sheppard when Mckay came to stand beside him.

"Do you think it will be cold on the other side?" asked Mckay, "Perhaps I should get a jacket," he said staring up at the steps again.

Sheppard sighed, "You're late. You're not going back for a jacket."

"You're wearing a jacket," said Mckay.

Sheppard nodded, "Yes, that's because Beckett insisted I wear it so as not to catch a cold." On McKay's look he said, "He worries about me okay?"

"Are you ready Major?" asked Weir from above him.

"We're set to go," he said and they all watched as the gate was activated.

"You're clear to go. Make sure you stay in contact." Said Elizabeth, "And make sure you keep safe."

"Will do," said Sheppard and then to everyone else, "Okay guys, fall out."

---------------------

On the other side Sheppard had instructed Major Lorne's team to secure the gate, whilst he and his team followed the life signs detector.

They had been walking for a while now and they hadn't come across anything remotely interesting yet. Sheppard was beginning to think that there wasn't anything here.

"There are life signs," said Mckay when he voiced those opinions.

"Are you sure they're not ours?" said Sheppard as they pushed forward through some dense undergrowth.

Mckay gave him a scowl, "They're here," he said pointing to the blips.

"I feel like we're going in circles," said Sheppard. "I've seen that before," he said pointing at a leafy green bush.

Teyla from beside him eyed him curiously, "They all look like that."

Ford suppressed a laugh, "How's the side Sir?"

"Do you want to see my scar?" he asked from behind him and he was surprised when Ford stopped.

Sheppard lifted up his top to show the crooked smile and Ford winced, "Is it smiling at me?"

Sheppard shoved his top back down, "If its smiling at you, its scowling at me."

"Yeah I got a pretty nasty one on my chin," said Ford showing the Major.

Sheppard sucked in his breath, "Nasty, oh you wanna see a scar I've got one," he said starting to lift his trouser leg.

Mckay had stopped talking and was staring at the two men with disbelief, "Are we going to keep moving, or are we going to show each other our scars all day?"

Sheppard and Ford exchanged glances and then Sheppard moved forwards pushing them all on, "Are we getting any closer?"

Mckay walked behind him and kept his eyes firmly on the readings before him, "Well we're-" A branch caught him in the face and he swiped it away, "You did that on purpose?"

Sheppard couldn't help but chuckle, "No I didn't."

"Yes you did," said McKay and another branch swung at his face. "That's it," he said pushing Sheppard aside and walking in front of him.

Sheppard ducked in time as a branch swung at his face, "That's not very nice Mckay," he said.

They continued trudging, when it started to rain. The path was becoming muddy and the slimy leaves and trees were becoming a nuisance.

"This is ridiculous," said Ford all of a sudden, "We've been walking for ages and not seen anything."

Mckay suddenly stopped ahead of them and put a finger up.

"What is it?" asked Sheppard coming to peer over his shoulder.

He looked at the scanner and saw that there were five red blips coming in their direction.

Fast.

Sheppard made a hand signal to Ford, a signal that Mckay had no idea what it meant.

He cocked his P90, as did Ford and Teyla and they started to spread out, pointing towards the incoming blips.

Sheppard saw the flash of white and the long grey cloaks and found himself grabbing Mckay by the arm and pushing him forwards, "Wraith!" he shouted, "Fall back to the gate!"

Before they could reach them Sheppard was pushing them all ahead of him, all the while they were slipping in the mud and trying to see through the sheet rain.

"Major Lorne, we've got wraith on our tails. I need you to dial that gate,"

Sheppard turned and sprayed some bullets into one of them.

It went down quickly and stayed down, which struck him as odd.

They continued to run at full pelt when Sheppard noticed that Mckay was starting to slow. Before he could stop him he tripped and fell to the ground, gripping at his ankle again.

"Damn it!" shouted Sheppard, "Ford, Teyla keep moving, we're right behind you!"

They were disappearing off into the undergrowth and Sheppard was kneeling in the mud trying to get Mckay to stand up.

Mckay gripped his ankle and attempted to stand but he collapsed again.

"Mckay, you have to get up!"

"I'm trying," shouted Mckay the panic evident in his voice.

Sheppard turned and aimed his P90 up as he could see another wraith was running towards him.

"Mckay get up!" he shouted and turned to look down at him.

Mckay was looking up at a wraith stood over him and now with his attention drawn elsewhere, Sheppard's gun was pulled out of his hand and a fist was hitting him in the face.

He sank to his knees and looked up at the wraith in front of him as he lunged a hand at his chest.

Sheppard closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable.

TBC


	9. Chapter 9

-----

Sheppard opened his screwed up eyes to look down and see that his heart was not open and bleeding, that he couldn't feel the ebb of life run away from him.

Instead the wraith was tearing through his pockets and ripping his radio out of his vest.

"What are you doing?"

Sheppard looked up through the rain and found himself squinting.

He could see that this wraiths face was not gnarled and malformed, and its teeth weren't yellow and fang like.

No, this wraith had normal, if a little yellow, teeth and he realised that this wraiths face was coming off with the rain.

He realised that _this_ wraith was a man.

He swung his head around when he heard Mckay groan out and then back to the wraith man.

Even the long dreds he realised were some kind of wig, "Who are you?" he asked over a rumble of thunder.

The wraith man wasn't up for conversation and he hit Sheppard across his face with the butt of his gun.

-------------

"Sheppard!"

Sheppard forced his eyes open and blinked a couple of times to clear his vision.

"Sheppard?"

His name was hissed at him again and he found himself looking around to find its source.

"Major?"

Oh God, he was losing his mind. He couldn't see anybody.

"Major?"

Movement from behind him and Sheppard could feel his senses returning. He assessed the situation as best he could.

Mckay was behind him, well he hoped it was, and they were sitting in the centre of what seemed to be some kind of man made shanty town. He was tied up to a stake and his hands were way too close to McKay's.

Oh and it was drizzling and both his ribs and his head were screaming out at him.

"Mckay?" he said through the fog in his brain.

"Oh thank god," he heard Mckay say.

"How are you doing?" asked Sheppard trying to strain against the ropes that were binding their wrists.

"Oh I'm fine," said Mckay, the sarcasm dripping his tone, "How about you?"

"Mother of all headaches," said Sheppard scanning the town.

"So what's your plan?" asked McKay hopefully.

"I don't have one," he said pulling at the restraints again, "Not at the moment."

"Stop pulling on the rope, your hurting my wrists," Mckay snapped.

Sheppard knew that it was just a way of him hiding his fear so he let it go.

"Has anyone been out since we got here?"

"No," said Mckay.

They were silent for a moment.

"Should have bought my jacket," he heard McKay saying.

"Is that all you can think about right now?" asked Sheppard trying to straighten out his legs.

"Well id rather think about that, than my obvious impending death."

"We're not going to die," said Sheppard dryly, "You saw them right. They were just men."

"Dressed as the wraith," said Mckay.

"Maybe they like their dress sense," suggested Sheppard.

"Maybe they like their M.O," snapped Mckay, "Perhaps you shouldn't talk if you don't have a plan to get us out of here."

Sheppard rolled his eyes and laid his head back against the wooden pole between their backs, "Fine."

----------

Sheppard hadn't realised he had dozed off. That knock to his head must have been harder than he had thought.

He was woken by a foot prodding him in the leg and when he did manage to pull himself out of the darkness, he found himself looking up at Wraith-man again.

"He's awake," he said looking over Sheppard's head at someone.

Sheppard tried to crane his neck round but he couldn't see who it was. It was only when another guy dressed in similar clothes, complete with white dreds and face paint, stepped in front of him he could look him in the eyes.

"You okay Rodney?" asked Sheppard.

There was movement behind him as Mckay obviously tried to look round and he heard a mumbled, "Yeah."

Sheppard licked his lips and looked up to the sky. It was getting dark, but it had stopped raining at least. Thank heaven for small mercies, he thought.

"Why have you come here?" asked one of the wraith men.

Sheppard sighed, "We're peaceful explorers. I'm Major John Sheppard and the other guy is Rodney Mckay. We didn't come here to pick a fight."

"I am Kai," said the wraith-man with a nod of his head.

"Are you the leader?" asked Sheppard tilting his head to the side.

"Are you?"

Sheppard nodded, "Yeah I guess so."

They stared at each other for a moment before the Kai finally crouched down in front of him, "Why have you come here?" he asked again.

Sheppard found his eyes drawn to the mans hands. He could see that he had grown his nails in imitation of the Wraiths characteristic talons.

"We found your guy under our city," he said narrowing his eyes.

Kai looked up at his friend and then back to Sheppard, "Larik," he said, "What have you done with him?"

"He was messing with our computers," said Mckay all of sudden breaking his silence, "I caught him and he tried to drag me down to that pit he called his room," he finished.

Sheppard could see Kai's eyes were drifting towards McKay's back so he tried to get attention back to him, "I killed him," he said feeling McKay's back tense against him. All he could hope was that Mckay didn't admit to firing the shots that killed him and he waited.

"You killed a man here too," said Kai with a shake of his head.

There was a split second between the point at which he stopped talking and the point at which he raised his hand and scratched them across Sheppard's face.

He felt the wounds bleeding and the blood started to streak down his cheek.

"What's going on?" asked Mckay trying to shift in his position, "Sheppard?"

"Everything's fine," said Sheppard evenly.

"You'll pay for their deaths tonight," said Kai with a vindictive laugh.

"What's happening tonight?" asked Sheppard.

Kai stood up and brushed down his clothes, "You'll see." He said and started to walk around them.

"Does it end with us dying?" asked Sheppard, "I bet it does."

"If we're going to die," said Mckay all of a sudden, "You can tell us what the man, Larik was doing in Atlantis."

Sheppard couldn't see Kai now, which meant he was glaring down at Mckay, "Larik was a spy. We have many on different worlds, they collect information and seek out new feeding grounds for the wraith."

"Do the wraith know you do this?" asked Mckay suddenly, "Because I would say that this is a pretty rife feeding ground." There was a moment of silence before Mckay spoke again, "They don't know you do this, do they? Because if they did, you would already be dead." He could hear the smugness in McKay's voice and if he hadn't of been tied up he probably would have slapped him around the face too.

Kai smacked him so hard across the head that Sheppard felt that one and he let out a grimace on his behalf.

"You know nothing about us," said Kai and he appeared yet again in Sheppard's field of vision.

"We know that you think the wraith are Gods," said Sheppard.

Kai narrowed his eyes at him, "They _are_ and when we sacrifice you to them tonight and give them vital information they will be pleased and spare us."

Sheppard couldn't help it, he found himself laughing, "Have you ever seen one, have you ever witnessed a cull?" he asked, "And you really think that they will be satiated by the two of us?" He laughed again and this time felt the tip of a boot in his side. His ribs screamed out at him and he found himself leaning forwards heavily and spitting blood.

"We have lived like this for a long time and the wraith have not touched us. They know we worship only them and so they leave us alone."

Mckay started talking again, "They have kept away because they were in hibernation, but now they have woken up."

"That is not true," said Kai with a dismissive wave of his hand, "We have sent out a signal to them to call them here to take you and-"

Sheppard managed to drag himself away from the pain in his chest to look up at Kai, "You've called them…here?" he asked.

Mckay stiffened behind him.

"Yes," said Kai, "We have an offering for them." He laughed and turned to his friend.

"You're an ass," said Sheppard with a shake of his head. He felt the boot in his stomach again and he coughed up bile, "Sonofabitch," he said quickly and tried to stop himself from keeling forward and pulling McKay's bindings with him.

"We have much to prepare," said Kai with a small bow, "They will arrive soon." He turned and walked off, his friend in tow.

"Can you believe this?" asked Mckay.

"Maybe the wraith won't get the signal?" said Sheppard hopefully, because at the moment he wasn't up for fighting. That guy had just broken his rib clean in two.

"Are you kidding?" he heard Mckay say, "The wraith aren't going to pass up a meal. Free at that."

"They're totally deluded," wheezed Sheppard.

"Its not totally unheard of," said Mckay and he shifted behind him, "Some people worship the devil, you have pro-Nazi demonstrations-" he paused, "They think an offering will appease their Gods, sound familiar?"

"Very," said Sheppard.

"Reminds me of the Gou'ald," said Mckay.

Sheppard waited a beat and then said, "The who?"

"You do have clearance to be here, don't you?" asked Mckay with a sigh.

Sheppard let the comment go, "Well at least we have some answers."

"Yeah, right before we die."

Sheppard tried to pull at his bindings but they just got tighter the more he moved. "We need to get out of here," said Sheppard.

"Oh really, because I was thinking of stopping here."

"Mckay sarcasm isn't helping," said Sheppard.

"They don't realise that they are all going to die," said Mckay and he sounded somewhat distraught, "You can't appeal to the wraiths better nature. They don't have a nature besides sucking the life out of you."

"I know," said Sheppard.

He could taste blood at the back of his throat and wondered if that was because he had bit his tongue when the guy had slapped him across the face, or whether it was because he was bleeding internally.

"And they look ridiculous. Bad wigs, face paint……they look like clowns."

"Shame they don't make us laugh." Sheppard looked up at the sky and hoped that it would offer up some answer. It wasn't likely that the clouds would come together to form the phrase, '_You get out of this mess by_….'

"This is hopeless," he heard Mckay whine, "We're tied up, beat up and there's no way out of this."

"Teyla and Ford would have made it back to the gate. They're probably back there forming a plan as we speak." Said Sheppard.

"Yeah and what if they're saying we'll rescue them tomorrow morning, because there isn't going to be a tomorrow morning for us."

"You never know the wraith might not be into midnight snacks," said Sheppard.

"Stop making jokes."

"Stop talking then," said Sheppard feeling tired all of a sudden. All he wanted to do was close his eyes and go to sleep, "We're not going to get out of this. We're going to have to wait for our team. They _won't_ let us down."

"I hope not," said Mckay. He waited for a response but there was none, "Sheppard?" There was no answer and he could feel the body behind him loosening up, "Hello? Sheppard, answer me?"

"Wh..a?" Sheppard's head snapped up and knocked McKay's, "What?"

"Are you okay?" asked Mckay and he tried to turn again.

"I'm fine," said Sheppard with a shake of his head, "Just tired," he slurred.

"You're not going to pass out on me," he said.

"I said sleep not pass out," said Sheppard more clearly.

"You think I can't distinguish between the two. I know you Sheppard. Now stay awake."

"I will," said Sheppard.

--------

"Like a bridge over trouble…ed water…I. will-"

"Would you shut up Mckay," snapped Sheppard, "You're giving me a headache."

"Stop fading out on me then," said Mckay coarsely.

"I'm just dozing," said Sheppard.

They had been sitting like that for hours and now they were both feeling sore and increasingly sorry for themselves. Nobody had come to talk to them since the grand revelation about them being sacrifices.

It was now dark and it was becoming colder by the minute. Sheppard could feel Mckay shivering against his back and he felt somewhat guilty for not having let him get his coat earlier that morning.

"What time do you think it is?" asked Mckay.

"Late," said Sheppard looking up at the black sky.

"Where are they?"

"Who Kai? The wraith? Our team?"

Sheppard could feel himself dropping off again when he suddenly could hear high pitched whining over head.

"You hear that?" he heard McKay say.

Sheppard swallowed hard and lifted him eyes up to the sky, "Yeah."

Sheppard silently hoped that it would be a puddle jumper coming to their rescue, but when he saw the ship that flew over head, he recognised the lines and the sound immediately.

There was no mistaking the high pitched whir of an alien engine.

There was a sudden flurry of activity and men and women dressed as their 'Gods' came rushing out from their homes and stood in a circle around Sheppard and Mckay. Sheppard could hear various mumbles of excitement.

"Can you believe this?" he heard Mckay say, "We don't even get to die in peace."

"All of us will die," Sheppard said through gritted teeth. Partially because the pain in his chest was now making breathing difficult but mainly because he was trying to contain the anger he felt.

Kai stepped forward from the crowd and looked up at the sky with a smile, "You see," he said raising his hands upwards, "They have come to take our sacrifice."

"You're all going to die," said Sheppard lifting his head, jaw set.

"You are wrong," said Kai.

The wraith dart was thankfully on it's own, but once Wraith began beaming down into the city that's when Sheppard knew they were really screwed.

"Untie us," shouted Sheppard suddenly. "The weapons you took off me will kill them, We can _help_ you."

"Why would we want your help?" asked Kai, "We don't need your help."

"More than you realise," said Mckay.

Just then the wraith beam swept over some of the crowd and took up a man and a woman, "They have been chosen," someone shouted and Sheppard couldn't sit still any longer. He fought to release the bonds with every ounce of his strength, the ropes cutting into his wrists as he tried.

"Kai," he shouted over the noise of the wraith dart overhead.

Kai was distracted. A wraith had beamed down and he was walking towards him.

"You see?" said Kai again a manic grin spreading across his face.

The wraith walked up to him and stood their in complete stillness. He was looking at the man before him with a look of puzzlement.

"We have sacrifices for you," said Kai as the wraith stepped forward and took a deep intake of breath.

He looked over to where Mckay and Sheppard were tied up and then back to Kai, his eyes widening.

Kai was licking his lips and was now looking a bit nervous, "We want to assist you in your-" He was cut off suddenly as the wraith ripped open his cloak.

"Somebody free us," shouted Sheppard to the people just standing around and watching.

Kai looked down at the wraiths hand which was hovering over his chest.

"We um, we've been waiting for this day," he said looking over to the crowd.

"Waiting?" the wraith said pulling back his hand briefly.

"We have much to tell you about feeding grounds," started Kai.

"This," said the wraith, "Is a feeding ground." He plunged his hand into Kai's chest and Sheppard watched as he dropped to his knees, gasping for breath. His eyes fixed on his and Sheppard found himself looking away solemnly.

As Kai dropped to the floor with a sickening thud, men and women started to run around in panic.

"What happened?" asked Mckay.

Sheppard had forgotten that he couldn't see the ensuing action, "Kai's dead," he said looking up at the wraith who was now sucking the life out a young woman.

The scene that played out in front of him was like a badly directed horror movie. He could see the wraith were running around, plunging their hands into peoples chests and sucking the life out of them. It was difficult to see who was genuinely a wraith and who was a sad imitation.

"Are you seeing this?" asked Sheppard grimly.

Mckay was silent.

Shepard could see a wraith making his way towards him, striding with purpose and if he wasn't feeling quite so shell-shocked and increasingly ill he would have sworn he saw him crack his knuckles in preparation.

It approached him and stood over him and he could hear his own breathing becoming loud and erratic.

This one he couldn't mistake for a man and this one sadly _would_ kill him.

Its face contorted into a sneer when it looked down at him, "You are weak," it said through fanged mouth.

Sheppard tried to move his hands again but to no avail.

"You're dying," it said again and Sheppard felt more paralysed by fear than he had before. Not at his impending death, but at the truth that he was too weak too feed off. Because the wraith sensed that he was already dying.

It confirmed his earlier belief that he was bleeding internally.

The wraith walked away and behind him and he realised quickly that it was going to kill Mckay.

"Rodney?" he called out feeling every bit useless, "Mckay?" he called out.

He heard the sound of flesh being hit and felt McKay's last death throw.

TBC

_Okay so I did it again, but its not a character death fic okay, so don't panic._


	10. Chapter 10

--------

Sheppard couldn't believe it.

Mckay was dead.

He could even hear his voice still, echoing in his head, calling out his name.

His eyes were scrunched up and he listened intently.

Mckay sounded like he was next to his ear.

He could even feel his hot breath.

Sheppard opened his eyes and Mckay was kneeling down in front of him, "You're untied come on lets go."

Sheppard had an odd reaction and he grabbed McKay's face and gave it squeeze, "You're alive. Rodney, why are you alive?"

"Oh thanks," said Mckay grabbing him by the hand and pulling him up.

Sheppard swayed dizzily and reached out for support. He felt an arm encircling his waist and he looked up to see Ford.

"Sir?"

"Am I glad to see you," said Sheppard.

Sheppard pushed the man off him and bent over, putting his hands on his knees and breathing in against the nausea.

He looked over to see Beckett and Teyla and he could see that Major Lorne's team were making light work of the wraith.

They had still, however, managed to decimate an entire village.

"Good timing," said Sheppard and he clumsily reached out for a weapon.

A P90 was slapped into his hand by Beckett and he tried to pull himself together long enough to get them the hell out of there.

"We need to get out of here," he said breathlessly.

Beckett, he noticed was kneeling over a body and checking it's pulse.

Sheppard joined him and patted him on the shoulder, "We don't have time for this," he said and as if to punctuate that remark another wraith dart came into sight.

"We can't just leave them," said Beckett looking up.

Sheppard gave Beckett a second to look over the body and then continued, "We have to." He looked up as the dart passed over head and kept his finger cautiously curled over the trigger.

Beckett was shaking his head, "There are women and children," he said looking up, "This man still has a pulse, its weak but-"

"But he's dying," said Sheppard hearing the sound of bullets being fired rapidly to his left as Ford cut down another Wraith, "He's had the life sucked out of him."

Beckett swallowed down the lump in his throat.

"You have to know when you can and can't save somebody," said Sheppard, "Come on."

Sheppard walked over to Ford.

"Sir shouldn't we grab him," he said indicating to Beckett who was closing the mans eyes.

Sheppard scanned the area, managed to mute out the screams and whines, and then looked back to Beckett, "Give him a minute," he said. "How did you get here?"

"We came in a jumper, its in stealth mode just passed those trees," he said.

Sheppard nodded, "Okay, you got a radio?"

Ford quickly handed him his and Sheppard pushed it into his ear, "Lorne?"

"Hey, good to hear your voice sir," he said over the rapid fire of his weapon.

"Good to _see_ you," said Sheppard.

"We getting out of here?" he shouted just as he heard another discharge of bullets.

Sheppard raised his own weapon as a man ran towards him. He hesitated shooting when he realised it could have simply been a man.

"Definitely," said Sheppard breathing a sigh of relief when he realised it was a human.

"Good, coz I cant tell who's a wraith and who's human," he said.

"Fall back to the jumper," Sheppard said loudly.

He turned just in time as a woman and a man ran passed him and side swiped him. He bent down and took in a calming breath.

"Are you okay?" asked Beckett, now having pulled himself away from the body.

Sheppard looked up at him and gritted his teeth, "We need to move," he said straightening up, "Get back to the jumper now."

"Not until I look at-" Beckett put his hands over his ears and ducked when Sheppard raised his gun and started firing passed him at an incoming wraith.

"Move," said Sheppard.

They all started running as fast as they could back to the relative safety to the jumper, all the while firing off a few rounds here and there to stop a wraith in its tracks or to dodge the people who were running away.

Sheppard was running at the back of the pack and he could feel himself slowing. All he could taste was blood and it disturbed him and his chest was feeling increasingly uncomfortable. He couldn't quite get the oxygen he needed and he found himself stopping and bending over to try and suck in a full lungful. It fell short and he started coughing as stars danced in his eyes.

"Sheppard," he heard someone shout and he was so dizzy he couldn't tell who it was.

"Move," he shouted into the darkness as his vision swam.

He took a tentative step forward and felt the pull of unconsciousness as he reached out and touched a nearby tree.

He swallowed and looked up to see a man run passed and beyond that he was sure he could see the white hair of a wraith.

He lifted his weapon uncertainly and felt his finger against the trigger slipping.

His knees finally buckled on him and he sank down onto all fours, breathing against the pain in his chest and the pounding in his head.

He could feel arms pulling him forward and kind words telling him he would be okay, but he knew he was going to pass out even as Beckett said he would be okay.

--------------

Sheppard couldn't believe that for the millionth time in god knows how many days he was waking up after having been defeated by his body.

Before he opened his eyes he could hear the gentle hum which he instantly knew was the puddle jumper and low conversation above his head.

Sheppard opened his eyes expecting to see Beckett hovering over him, but instead he saw a wraith.

Sheppard pushed himself up as quickly as he could and backed away until he felt his back connect with something soft and fleshy.

He looked up to see the owner of the legs was Beckett and on looking more closely at the wraith he could see it was a child.

"Major?" Beckett asked getting Sheppard to lie back down again.

"I thought…." Sheppard found himself smiling as the young by put his head over Sheppard's and smiled down at him, "I thought you were a wraith."

Sheppard was finding it hard to breathe again and it felt like there was a lot of pressure on his rib cage, "This is Aneek," said Beckett smiling at the young one.

"Nice to meet you," said Sheppard holding out his hand to the child.

Aneek just stared at it and Sheppard withdrew it quickly.

"How are you feeling?" asked Beckett.

Sheppard nodded and went to open his mouth.

"And don't say I'm good," he said.

Sheppard's mouth twisted into a grimace, "Finding it a little hard to breathe," he said looking up at the ceiling. Suddenly, he shot up, "Who's driving?" he asked whipping his head around.

Beckett pressed him back down, "Rodney," he said reaching for his medical bag and getting out a portable breathing mask. He placed it over Sheppard's mouth, "Take some deep breathes, this will help."

Sheppard let the cool oxygen flow down his throat and he could immediately feel the benefits. That metallic taste was still at the back of his throat though and just as he was about to mention it he coughed, finding his throat clogged.

Beckett saw the blood spray the inside of the mask and immediately moved into action, "Ford!" he called out as Mckay began to the dialling sequence for the gate, "Help me roll him onto his side."

Ford helped move is CO onto his side and looked up at Beckett with a panicked look. Aneek had meanwhile moved back towards Teyla and was watching the ensuing drama before him with wide eyes.

"What's happening?" Beckett heard Teyla ask as she diverted the child's gaze away from the Sheppard's struggling.

"I can't hear breath sounds," he said listening with a stethoscope "That means blood is muffling the sounds." At Fords look he said, "He's bleeding internally."

Sheppard was flailing around and groaning and Ford was pinning him down to stop him from aggravating his injuries further.

"He got kicked in the ribs," said Mckay all of a sudden.

The men had been tied up with their backs to one another so Beckett wasn't sure how he could be sure of that, but McKay had obviously felt the impact, if not heard the internal crunch as Sheppard's rib finally broke.

"His rib could be causing this," said Beckett nodding, "He's having trouble breathing so it might have nicked his lung."

"How far away are we?" asked Ford suddenly.

Mckay was gritting his teeth as the jumper took over the controls, "We're going through now!" he shouted as they entered the event horizon.

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Elizabeth had sighed with relief when she saw the puddle jumper come through in one piece, but her heart had immediately sank when she heard the all too familiar request for a medical team to meet them in the hangar bay.

She found herself running, pushing passed people as if they meant nothing and stumbling into the jumper just as Sheppard was being loaded onto a gurney and various pieces of equipment were being fastened to him.

"Oh my god," she found herself saying out loud when she saw the blood on the inside of the oxygen mask and dribbling down Sheppard's cheek. "Beckett?"

Beckett was busy working on the Major, "Okay get him to the infirmary," he shouted out and bought the railing up at the side.

"Beckett, what's wrong with him?" asked Elizabeth as she scanned the inside of the jumper.

Everyone else was present and correct, plus a young child who was dressed up as a wraith.

"He's got a hemothorax," he said starting to follow the gurney.

Elizabeth ran alongside him and could tell that Mckay was on her heels, "What?"

"Blood is filling the space around the lungs," he said as they approached a transporter.

They arrived at the infirmary much quicker that Elizabeth realised and she watched as Sheppard was pulled up onto another bed and a flurry of activity happened around him.

Doctor Clarke rushed in through the door behind her nearly knocking her to the ground.

"I need a chest x ray," shouted Clarke as he approached the bed.

Beckett was already reaching for some equipment off the side and pulling some gloves on, "I don't need a chest x ray to confirm that he has a hemothorax," he said directing his gaze to Clarke.

"Get the chest X ray," said Clarke to one of the nurses.

Beckett sighed and looked over to the nurse, "I'm the CMO, listen to me, I need to intubate, his oxygen saturation level is plummeting."

Clarke was standing to the side arms crossed.

"Give him some Versed through an I.V," he said looking down at Sheppard's open and panicked eyes.

"Verseds in," shouted a nurse from his left and he watched as Sheppards eyes started to close.

He intubated Sheppard, and then looked back over to Elizabeth, "You might not want to stand around here, I'm going to have to put a needle in his chest to relieve the pressure and stick a chest tube in to let the blood drain out."

Elizabeth visibly paled and nodded, "I'll be outside."

Beckett reached for a scalpel and moved aside Sheppard freshly cut open t shirt to access a space in the chest wall just to the side of the ribs. He made eye contact with Clarke just before he made the incision and just as quickly pushed the chest drain into it.

"Set up suction," he said to a nurse, "And I want that chest X ray now."

TBC

Please review


	11. Chapter 11

"I hope he's okay," said Elizabeth as she paced outside the infirmary doors.

Mckay walked towards her, he too was pacing, and shook his head, "He'll be okay," he said meeting Elizabeth mid pace and meeting her gaze for a moment, "What's taking them so long?"

Elizabeth shook her head and continued to wrap her hands around herself, "John's a fighter."

Mckay walked passed her and sighed, "What if…."

Elizabeth stopped him and grabbed his elbow, "It wont happen." She swallowed hard and turned away as she felt the tears she had managed to so far keep at bay threaten to fall. She ran a hand through her curly hair as she sat down in one of the chairs and rested her elbows on her knees, "What happened out there?"

Mckay came and sat beside her, shifting when his fingers brushed her knee, "They thought that the wraith would spare them if they worshipped them," he said solemnly and had a flashback to the darts over head and the noise of those screams. He shook his head in a bid to free the thoughts but they continued thick and fast until Elizabeth spoke again.

"If we hadn't got to you in time," she swallowed and Mckay could see the slight trembling in her hands that she was trying to hide, "I cant believe all of this happened under our noses. Under our feet," she corrected.

Mckay shivered at the thought, "He didn't succeed," he said.

"A wraith got into our city and killed a good soldier," she said glancing at him.

McKay's jaw was set and he met her gaze with a small nod, "Yeah."

"And he nearly killed you," she said referring to his kidnap attempt on Mckay.

"But not alone," he said. At Elizabeth's look he said, "Just a feeling I'm having. I'm probably hungry."

They sat in silence for a further few minutes. Personnel walked passed them silently in the corridors, some stopping to offer their support, others fearing bad news kept their heads down and continued on.

"He'll be fine," said Elizabeth again.

"Any news?" asked Ford rounding the corner having dispensed of his weapons and having received his post mission check up.

Elizabeth shook her head and Mckay stood to begin his pacing again.

Teyla followed shortly after him and stopped outside the infirmary with a face set hard in determination, "How is Sheppard?"

"Nobody's telling us anything," said Mckay as he walked back and forth.

"I'm sure Beckett is doing all he can," said Elizabeth standing and offering her seat to Teyla.

"What if he was wrong about the hemo-thing?" he asked suddenly, doubt evident in his eyes, "Sheppard contracted that infection before, he was already weak, what if it wasn't his chest?" He bought a hand up to his eyes and rubbed at them, "Is Doctor Clarke in there with him?"

Elizabeth felt her mouth drop open, "Doctor Beckett is one of the best," She said placing a hand on his shoulder.

Mckay dropped his head and closed his eyes, "I know, I know…I'm just. Don't tell Sheppard I was worried."

"Perhaps you should go and get some clothes from Sheppard's quarters. He'll be needing them when he wakes up."

Mckay looked up, "I don't want to miss anything."

"You wont," said Elizabeth.

Mckay realising his own need to take a walk and have a little space between the situation nodded and walked off in the direction of Sheppard's empty room.

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Mckay felt somewhat guilty when he opened the door to Sheppard's room and hesitated before he took a step in.

It was a much bigger room than his, but he noticed thankfully that his bed was still as small as his. The room was tidy and Mckay didn't know whether to be surprised by that or not.

Sheppard was military after all, and wasn't making the bed and polishing your boots drilled into you early on in training. On the other hand, Sheppard was so laid back. Even his hair had an unruly quality, defying orders to stay flat. He would have been less surprised if he found clothes strewn about the room.

He near tripped over a boot just next to the bed and sighed as he picked up. Okay, so perhaps Sheppard was an idiot.

Who would leave a boot there?

Prime concussion territory.

He placed it under his bed and then walked over to a drawer unit where he pulled out a pair or sweats and a replacement black t shirt.

He felt a bit weird about riffling through his underwear drawer and decided rather aptly that Sheppard could go commando, because there was no way he was going to pluck his way through his pants.

He scanned the room with a careful eye and noticed the Johnny cash picture on the wall and nestled between the book case and the wall was a skateboard.

With a shake of his head and started towards the door, but stopped when he noticed a book on Sheppard's side table. He picked it up and realised that it was one of the journals from the other day. Sheppard had obviously wanted some light reading. He looked around the room trying to see if he could see the War and Piece book, he knew Sheppard was attempting to read. He half laughed when he saw it propping up a rickety table in the corner. He rolled his eyes and left.

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"Did I miss anything?" asked Mckay when he approached his team mates. Ford was sitting in one of the chairs, his head against the wall. Teyla was beside him, her hands clasped in some kind of prayer like gesture and Elizabeth was peeking into the infirmary.

"No," she said with a shake of her head.

She turned away and missed Beckett coming up behind her and let out a little gasp when she turned and was inches away from his face.

He looked tired but with smile his face shifted and he reverted to stoic professionalism, "He's out of the woods and holding his own," he said breathing steadily.

"That is good news," said Teyla smiling as she looked from their faces back to Beckett.

"How is he Carson?"

"We've managed to repair the damaged vessels," he looked down at the floor and then back up to them, "And we've drained the fluid out of his lungs."

Elizabeth patted him on the shoulder, "Don't doubt your abilities. You did good."

He looked up and she thought she could see a wave of relief in his eyes.

"Can we see him?" asked Mckay still clutching Sheppard's clothes in his hands like a security blanket.

"We're still closing up and we have some other checks to do." He said looking Mckay in the eye, "But give me a couple of hours and come back when he's settled."

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Beckett walked into the infirmary to find Mckay sitting next to Sheppard's bed, simultaneously typing on his laptop and talking, "When you wake up, you're not going anywhere ever again." Mckay sighed and continued to type, "I knew you were lying to me. Saying you were tired."

"Please don't argue with my patients," said Beckett as he approached the bed.

"He started it," said Mckay crossing his arms over his chest.

"Rodney, the poor mans unconscious," said Beckett looking over his chart and checking the connections to the ventilator.

"Where's everybody else?" he asked scanning the empty room.

"Elizabeth had work to attend to. Ford and Teyla just left for lunch." He paused, tapped on the keyboard for a bit before looking up again, "How's he doing?"

Beckett shoved his hands into his pocket, "I got his ABG's," at McKay's looks he said, "Arterial blood gas'. He's getting sufficient oxygen into his blood which means I can start weaning him off the ventilator," he said turning and flicking a few switches, "His sedating medication should be wearing off now too so we should be able to extubate him soon."

"That's good right?" said Mckay with a smile.

Beckett nodded, "Aye, he's due some good news I'd say."

Doctor Clarke walked in and placed an x ray up on the light board.

The x ray was of a pair of lungs, one was black the other was white.

Beckett walked over to Clarke.

"What is that?" asked Mckay from the other side of the room.

"Sheppard's chest x ray," said Beckett, "The white area is blood."

Clarke nodded, "It would seem you made the right call."

"Checking up on me?" asked Beckett standing stiffly and not missing the look on Clarke's face that told him he was.

Beckett gave his a sideways glance and rubbed at his face.

"Have you stopped the Versed?"

"Yes," said Beckett.

"When are you planning to extubate?"

"Sheppard's young and healthy, if all goes well I'll taken him off it tonight and put in a nasal cannular."

Clarke nodded in agreement.

"After that we'll have to put him on a combination of codeine and Tylenol, he's going to be in some severe pain."

Clarke pulled down the x ray and passed it to Beckett, "He shouldn't have gone to that planet, where…what was it…there was a wraith cult?"

Beckett was about to answer when he was interrupted by Mckay noisily getting up out of his seat and folding his laptop under his arm, "So he's not going to wake up for a while then?"

"No," said Beckett, "SO I suggest you get some rest yourself. That knock you had to your head means you should."

"I will, I just have a bit of work to do."

"Rodney," Beckett warned.

"Look this whole lockdown of Atlantis has me bothered, from down in his room Larik couldn't have accessed those conduits so he must have had outside help."

"You think?" asked Beckett covering his mouth with his hand.

Mckay held a hand up and closed his eyes momentarily, "I'm not jumping to conclusions, I just…….I'm going to go read one of the journals Sheppard had in his room. It might tell us more about who this helper was."

"Sheppard had one of the journals in his room?" asked Clarke stepping forward.

Mckay nodded, "Yeah I guess he traded it in for War and Peace," he stifled a yawn, "I'll be I'm my lab if you need me."

----------------------

Mckay picked up his mug and drained out the last dregs into his mouth.

The coffee was stone cold and he swilled it in his mouth for a minute to try and warm it up. It remained as stagnant as ever and he eventually swallowed, sticking his tongue out in disgust.

The journal was proving to be the most laborious piece of writing he had ever read and couldn't understand why Sheppard would opt for reading this over War and Peace. It did hint at a second party involvement, but most interestingly it talked of the initiation process into the wraith cult. Most importantly it involved being branded with a symbol; a triangle on the inside of the wrist.

Sheppard had never mentioned to him about reading it in the journal but he guessed perhaps Sheppard didn't realise the significance of it at that time.

His radio crackled making him half jump and he angrily snapped, "What is it?"

"Charming. You ask me to look at system for you and all I get is anger."

"Sorry Zelenka," said Mckay sitting up straight, "Have you found anything?"

"You were right. Somebody else overrode the computer from our level, the crazy guy could not have done it alone."

Mckay could feel the hairs rising on the back of his neck, "So its someone from Atlantis who was helping Larik," he said rubbing at his eyes.

He was developing a headache at the base of his skull and the continuous reading wasn't doing him any favours. "Any way of telling who it is?"

"There is a code, its encrypted but we are working on it to find out who?"

"Any ideas?" asked Mckay, "We don't have a lot of time."

He heard Zelenka say something in Czech on the other end, "Well the first three numbers of the code are 453," he paused and waited for Mckay to get the message.

All Atlantis staff members had their own employee code used to access computers, they all started with 453. The day, the month and the year they set out on the expedition, "Let me know when you find out who it is."

"Will do. Zelenka out."

"Hows the research going?"

Mckay turned around startled and saw that Doctor Clarke was leaning against the doorframe, two coffees in his hand.

"Slow," said McKay, "What are you doing down here?"

"Thought you could use some coffee," he said stepping forward and passing Mckay a mug.

"Beckett sent you to check up on me didn't you?"

Clarke bit his lips nervously, "I guess I can't fool you huh?"  
Mckay smiled and turned back to his book, "No you can't."

"Is that Larik's journal?"

Mckay nodded, "Uh huh," he paused and threw a look over his shoulder, "How did you know the guys name was Larik?"

Clarke smiled and leant against the desk, "Oh I heard Beckett talking about it."

"Beckett," said McKay slowly. He was sure that since coming back they had not mentioned the guys name. It had all been extremely hurried, what with all the worrying about Sheppard and constant monitoring of his health.

"You found anything?" asked Clarke. He took a sip of his coffee and fixed his eyes on McKay's.

Uh…no," he lied, "Nothing significant anyway."

"Right," said Clarke.

Something was very off about the whole situation. Mckay had never spoke to Clarke before. He maintained a low profile, not to be seen outside his working hours and often was heard to berate the Scientists, so the fact that now he had come to talk to him, a scientist, was strange.

"Rodney?"

Mckay swallowed and listened to Zelenkas voice, "Yeah," he said activating it and looking up at Clarke with an apologetic look.

"I have a name," he heard the voice say.

"That was quick."

"The encryption was extremely amateur," he heard Zelenka say.

Mckay reached for his coffee and took a sip, "And?" he asked swallowing the liquid and looking up at Clarke.

He already knew the answer.

"Greg Clarke."

Mckay tried to keep his expression neutral and smiled at the Doctor stood before him, "Thank you," he said, "Perhaps you would like to start the necessary procedures to complete."

He deactivated his radio and looked up at Clarke. It made perfect sense. The only people who could authorise a base lockdown were the superior staff and especially the superior medical staff. Clarke was Beckett's second in command.

"Problems?" asked Clarke trying to remain calm himself. He placed his coffee down and crossed his arms over his chest.

Mckay unconsciously scratched at his arm, "_You_," he said swallowing thickly,

Clarke narrowed his eyes, "How are you feeling?"

McKay was unsure as to what he was asking and he bought his hands up his face and scratched the itch on his neck, "Fine. How are _you_ feeling……there are people on their way here," he said as a wave of dizziness forced him to blink heavily. He rubbed at his face and noticed his face felt tingly all over.

Mckay was suddenly starting to feel overwhelmed by a sudden panic. His heart rate was increasing, his tongue felt rubbery and his throat felt constricted, "What did you do?" he asked as he put both hands up to his throat.

Clarke pushed himself off the desk and came to stand next to him, "You don't look well Doctor Mckay," and he placed a hand over his wrist, "Your pulse is racing."

"You…."Mckay managed to say.

"Oh no," said Clarke all of a sudden feigning shock, "You're allergic to citrus aren't you?"

Mckay gasped out in horror and tipped off his stool and down onto the hard floor. He eyed the coffee which had spilt down beside him and realised what had happened.

"I cant have anyone find out it was me," he said looking down at McKay as he writhed about on the floor.

"She…..p…" he managed to get out.

Clarke stepped over his fallen form and headed for the door.

---------------

Sheppard could feel whatever drug had him so out of it lifting.

He blinked as he looked up at the infirmary ceiling and tried to recall what had happened since being on the planet with the crazy wraith cult. He couldn't remember as the details were so fuzzy and he bought a hand up to rub his eyes.

His hand lifted and connected with something and he realised that he had a tube down his throat. He could feel his gag reflex kicking in and he tried not to panic.

It was bad enough his mind was all over the place it now seemed his breathing was refusing to concentrate and the whoosh of air from the ventilator was confusing him.

He lay like that for a long time.

Silently panicking.

His fingers twisting the covers in his hands as he tried to fight his bodies urge to gag.

Thankfully, from the dark a figure appeared from the dark and stood over him.

Sheppard couldn't stop swallowing and desperately wanted the tube removed.

"Try not to panic," said Doctor Clarke looking down at him.

Sheppard blinked against the wave of pain in his chest and watched as he started to make his checks.

Clarke was reaching over his head to cheek the connector to his ventilator when Sheppard saw a flash of something from under his sleeve.

It was a symbol.

A triangle.

Sheppard instantly remembered the journal he had snuck to his room to read and could see the image, _that_ image, emblazoned on one of the pages.

He felt his eyes widen as he looked up at Clarke and realised all too quickly that Clarke wasn't checking his ventilator tube, he was sabotaging it.

He was turning off the one pipe which took away the secretions that collected in the mouth and couldn't be dispensed off because of the ventilator tube; he was going to let him drown in his own fluids.

They would build up and he would choke to death.

"Ah," the noise that came out of his mouth was muted and Sheppard could feel his eyes tearing against the constant gagging as he looked up.

Clarke was Larik's contact.

His other man.

If only he could tell the others in time.

-------------------

Mckay fought against the darkness. He would not pass out now, not at the expense of his friends life.

His hand reached out for his stool and he managed to get into a kneeling position. Only for a moment before he dragged the stool down and it crashed down beside his body.

"He….lp," he managed to croak but the sound was ineffective

Mckay lay there completely still and was about to give in when he heard the sound of footsteps coming into the room.

He looked up through a haze to see Lt Ford standing over him and behind him a blurry Zelenka.

"What's wrong?" asked Ford looking down at McKay's red face. He had a rash which extended down his neck and obviously down to his chest.

"I'll call Beckett," said Zelenka all of a sudden.

"No…time," McKay managed to rasp.

"What?" asked Ford and he moved his ear closer to McKay's mouth.

"Allergy," he managed to say, "My inje…." He was beginning to fade on them fast.

"oh мой бог" said Zelenka all of a sudden, "His injection for ana…" He stood and ran over to a drawer in McKay's desk. He ran over with a small tube which he proceeded to pull out of it, a syringe already loaded with epinephrine.

He quickly gave Mckay the injection and they watched as he eyes rolled back in his head and his eyelids fluttered.

"What did you give him?" asked Ford.

"Adrenaline," said Zelenka wiping sweat off his forehead, "He showed all of us in case of……" he paused.

Ford grabbed him by the arm, "Man," he said with a shake of his head, "Mckay?"

Mckay was fading in and out but he managed to get his voice to say the words he needs to, "Get to…..Sheppard," before he passed out.

----------------------

Sheppard wanted to shout out, to say something, but the tube in his throat had stopped his vocal chords use and he was helpless.

If there was anything he hated more was to be seen as an invalid and here he was.

He wondered if this is what it felt like for coma patients who could hear, know that their life support is about to be switched off, and want to cry out to stop it.

Sheppard was about to lash out when Clarke stepped back into the shadows.

He waited in the silence, listening to his heart pounding in his ears and his throat very slowly feeling smothered.

He could have cried when he saw Beckett's face appear over his, "You're awake," he said with a kind smile and he adjusted the bed so Sheppard could sit up.

Beckett was totally oblivious to the dire situation he had just stumbled into.

He could see that Sheppard was looking rather flustered and when Sheppard grabbed him by the wrist and pointed at his throat Beckett couldn't have moved faster.

Beckett realising that Sheppard was choking and not because he found the tube uncomfortable immediately disconnected it from the ventilator and gripped the end, "I need you to cough sharply when I say so."

Sheppard nodded and as Beckett pulled he coughed out.

The tube slid out and Sheppard found himself gagging and coughing as his lungs adjusted to the new levels of Oxygen.

"Calm down, breathe slowly," Beckett was saying as he pushed an oxygen mask over his mouth.

Sheppard breathed in the oxygen in deep lungful, feeling the pull on his ribs and not caring.

"Beckett, it's.." he tried to say but found the mask being pushed firmly over his face.

"Calm down," he said. "If you're not comfortable I'll have to sedate you again and put you back on this."

He inspected the tube which removed secretions and tutted, "No wonder you were in distress," he said showing him the tube, "Its blocked."

Sheppard pulled the mask down again, "Clar……Clarke," he said and managed to lift his hand weakly.

Beckett looked at the Majors eyes and saw that they were focusing behind him and that he looked panicked.

Beckett turned and felt something slam into his face before he fell to the ground.

Sheppard looked up at Clarke and pulled the mask away from his face, "Your……dead," Clarke said without looking away.

Sheppard shook his head as Clarke approached him, "No….you are."

Sheppard blinked and watched in slow motion as Clarke was shot in the back. He felt his blood spray his face and watched as Clarke crumbled to the ground. One hand grasped out to hold onto the bed before slipping down and following him to the floor.

Sheppard could see Ford now, stood with a company of men, still holding his weapon up," Are you okay sir?"

"How did you know?" he asked breathing heavily. He still didn't feel right off the ventilator and fought for each breath.

"Zelenka heard Mckay over the radio."

Sheppard nodded and watched as one of his men ran to check on Beckett. "Mckay?" he asked drawing in oxygen from the mask.

Two men helped Mckay into the infirmary and lay him down on the bed as a Doctor ran in behind him.

"Clarke tried to poison him," said Ford.

"How?" Sheppard managed.

"Citrus." He said watching as magically appearing staff worked on him. "Mckay keeps epinephrine with him always. Trust him." He said with a quirk of an eyebrow.

Sheppard nodded and leant back heavily in his bed.

Beckett was coming too on the floor as a nurse tended to the open gash on his head. "No don't stand…" she was saying as he pushed her aside and stood.

He gripped the railings of Sheppard's bed and swayed, "Nurse get him on a nasal cannular," he said bringing his hand up to the cut on his head. It came away bloody.

"You need your head looked out." The nurse said.

Beckett sighed and allowed himself to be dragged over to the bed next to Sheppard's.

Sheppard listened to the ensuing noise and chatter around him and as he felt somebody pushing the oxygen mask over his face, he breathed in deep, and let the exhaustion pull him away.

TBC


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N** _Thank you to all those who have been reading this and reviewing. This is the final instalment. Its short but I wanted everything to return to semi-normal. Sheps been having a time of it lately, what with all the whumpage, I thought he was owed one off world mission and a clear walk back to the gate! No wraith, no bad appendix, no wraith worshippers or crazy doctor._

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Elizabeth spilled into the infirmary and put a hand up to her mouth as she surveyed the sight before her.

Mckay was writhing about on the bed in what seemed like agony to her ears. He had his hand up to his throat but his voice sounded muffled, as if it were constricted.

Beckett was sitting on a gurney with his hand up to his head and shouting orders at a nurse to get Sheppard back on theVentilater.

Sheppard was unconscious but she could hear the sounds of machines beeping and letting them know that his condition wasn't great.

Her eyes finally came to the floor and she saw Doctor Clarke lying down, covered in blood, one hand outstretched.

"Oh my god," she said running over and leaning down to pull him over onto his back.

A restraining hand pulled her back and she looked up at Ford, "Leave him ma'am," he said standing up straight and placing his hands over the butt of his weapon.

"He's bleeding," she said looking down in horror.

"He's dead," said Teyla stepping up behind her and turning her away.

"Get a team to take him away," said Elizabeth closing her eyes to try and calm her frayed nerves, "And I want somebody to tell me what the hells going on. I got a call to come down here immediately."

"Doctor Clarke was collaborating with the guy who let the wraith in," said Ford casually, "He tried to kill Doctor Mckay and Sheppard."

She turned back to Ford and put her hands on her hips, but found herself distracted by Beckett shouting out another order.

"Intubate him," he shouted. He was getting up and going over unsteadily to the major's bed.

The nurse stood behind Sheppard and put his head straight, but as Beckets fingers reached out to touch Sheppard's face his eyes came open and he managed to choke out, "No."

Beckett was feeling increasingly dizzy and took a step backwards into Elizabeth.

"Carson?"

"He was intubated before. Clarke blocked the tube so he couldn't breathe."

Sheppard was straining against the woman's grasp in his neck and started to thrash his hands out.

"Restrain him before he does himself more harm than good," shouted Beckett and four hefty marines stepped forward to pin down his legs and arms.

Sheppard continued to strain against them, grunting out, his eyes rolling in his head.

"What's wrong with him?" asked Elizabeth and she stepped forward to grab for his hand.

His fingers wrapped around hers and held them tightly.

"Okay," said Beckett leaning into the Major, "If you calm down, I'll put you on a nasal cannular," he said.

Sheppard stilled and his eyes fixed with Becketts. They seemed to speak volumes and Beckett could understand that Sheppard would comply.

"But…" said Beckett ushering everyone to let him go, "If you don't improve, you will have to go back on it."

Sheppard's eyes widened again and he tried to talk through his bruised chords.

"I know you don't want to," said Beckett patting him on the shoulder.

He turned to the nurse and spoke quietly, "Give him something to sedate him and then give him oxygen." The nurse nodded and hurried off.

Elizabeth guided Beckett back over to an infirmary bed and she could see that he wasn't going to relax.

He pushed her away from him and strode over to where Mckay was lying back on the infirmary bed, oxygen mask over his face, and staring up at the ceiling with blank eyes.

"How are you doing?" asked Beckett. He could feel blood beginning to trail down his cheek and he fought the urge to wipe it away and smudge it on his face.

Mckay could only nod.

"You were given the adrenaline in time, so just relax and things should start to feel much more normal."

Mckay bought a hand up and waved it at Beckett.

"You'll be feeling tingly for a while and your heart will be racing. Its all normal." He gave McKay's shoulder a squeeze and was thankful when strong arms caught him as he stumbled back against a burst of bright light. He looked up meekly at Ford, "Thanks," he said.

He was helped over to his bed and was made to sit down, "Get yourself treated," said Elizabeth watching as men came into the room with a black body bag.

Beckett nodded and swallowed the lump ion his throat, "They'll be fine," he said seeing her worried look.

"And you?" she said sitting up on the bed beside him.

Beckett considered the question for a moment and scanned the carnage before him, "I could be better."

"You will," said Elizabeth and she jumped up off the bed, "I need to see if my city is okay. You get that cut looked at."

----------------------

Six weeks ago Sheppard had woken up in that infirmary to the sounds of two voices.

"He's waking up."

"He is?"

"Yes."

"How can you tell?"

"I just can?"

"Why isn't he opening his eyes then?" the irate voice asked.

"Probably because he can hear us too," someone said in a strong Scottish brogue.

The sound of movement, a hand on his arm and Sheppard rolled his eyes open.

He bought his hands up to his throat and could feel that thankfully he only had a nasal cannular in.

If memory served him, and it did unfortunately, he could still feel the bruising in his windpipes and the vague remembrance that Doctor Clarke had tried to kill him.

Beckett was stood over him. He had a nasty bruise on his forehead and a gash across his cheek which had been stitched up. Next to him was Mckay, his face was pale but blotchy and his neck looked somewhat swollen.

"How do you feel?" asked Beckett adjusting the bed so Sheppard could sit upright.

He swallowed to try and soothe his sore throat, "Better than you two look," he rasped.

He scanned the room, letting his eyes roam lazily and could see that there was a soldier sat by the door. His eyes came back to Beckett and Mckay and he looked down to see that both men were dressed in scrubs.

Sheppard creased his brow and was about to ask about their attire when a nurse scuttled into the room and pursed her lips together angrily as she approached them, "What are you two doing out of bed?"

Beckett looked to Sheppard and then back to the nurse, "We were just…he's woken up," he stuttered guiltily and then raised a hand to his head, "I'm still his Doctor," he muttered as she ushered them both back to their respective beds.

The nurse shook her head and laughed quietly, "You need to rest."

"Listen to her Beckett," said Mckay not missing the chance to aggravate him further,

"I would if we weren't short on staff," he sighed and settled back under the covers, "Clarke was a good Doctor."

"Yeah shame he turned out to be a psycho," said Mckay.

Sheppard groaned and bought a hand up to his head, "Would you to quieten down?"

"No," said Mckay, "You've been unconscious for days, so join in the conversation." He crossed his arms across his chest.

Sheppard admitted that it was nice to finally be free of drama and disaster. He allowed himself to be dragged into the conversation and cleared his throat. "So it was Clarke?" he said reaching out for a glass of water as the nurse took his OBs.

"Yes," said Beckett with a sigh.

"He tried to poison me," said Mckay hooking a thumb at himself, "Can you imagine if he had succeeded?"

Sheppard found himself smiling, "Yes. _Yes_ I can."

"Funny," said Mckay with a mocking laugh.

"I guess he cracked under the strain of being isolated out here," said Sheppard rubbing at his eyes in an attempt to evade sleep. "Seems easy enough," he said considering the events of the past few months and suppressing a shiver.

It was enough to make anyone crazy.

"Its not unheard of," said Beckett, "Just a shame I didn't see it sooner."

"Doc!" Sheppard warned.

Beckett shot him a look. "Well I personally selected the man."

"You couldn't have known."

"There was nothing questionable about his mental state. He graduated from the best medical school in…" he paused and rubbed at his nagging headache, "I'm going to have to start interviewing my medical staff and find a suitable replacement."

"Yeah just don't chose anyone with an evil glint in his eye," snarked Mckay.

---------------------------

Now six weeks later he was standing where he had previously fallen.

They were back on the planet where they had discovered the strange sect of wraith worshippers.

It was well documented that the wraith did not return to site which was culled, not for a long time anyway until any survivors had bred and produced more food.

Elizabeth had allowed them to go back to retrieve the dog tags of some of their fallen men and purely for research.

They trudged through the deep undergrowth in a single file line. Beckett was in front, McKay's behind him, Ford behind him and Sheppard bringing up the rear.

It was raining again, but Sheppard looked up at the sky as he walked and let drops fall onto his face. It certainly was good to be alive.

"How are you doing Major?" he heard Beckett call out in front of him.

Sheppard side stepped a fallen log, "I'm fine Doc. You don't have to keep asking me that every five minutes."

Beckett was stopping and waited till Sheppard was beside him before he started walking again, "You had major surgery," he said with a sigh, "How's your breathing?"

Sheppard slapped his hand away from him, "I'm feeling great."

"You look a bit pale."

"Pale? Doc you gotta be kidding me. I've been in the infirmary for weeks. No sun, no tan. Of course I'm pale." He walked a little faster and heard Beckett stumble behind him, "You okay Doc?"

"Yes," said Beckett as he walked behind him.

"I know why you're doing this," said Sheppard, "But you don't have to. You made a good call with the surgery."

"Which one?" asked Beckett breathing heavily behind him.

Sheppard thought and smiled, "All of them."

Beckett grabbed him by the shoulder, "I'm touched, really," he said, "But I never doubted my abilities as a medical professional."

"Oh yes you did," shouted Mckay from the front.

Beckett readjusted his back pack on his shoulder and looked down, "Okay so maybe I…..was a little concerned about my judgment." A branch caught him in the face and he spat out bits of leaf.

"It all turned out good," said Sheppard patting his side, "See no pain, no lasting effects, even my scar looks happier."

Beckett wiped the rain from his hair and nodded, "Well thanks all the same."

"Don't mention it," shouted Mckay from the front and both men looked at each other and raised an eyebrow.

"Are we getting any closer?" shouted Sheppard as he walked over to Mckay.

"Yes we are," he said looking at his scanner, "Just a few more minutes."

Sheppard found himself feeling uneasy the closer they got to the village.

The last time he had seen it, the view had not been an engaging one. Wraith sucking the life out of men and women, screams in the air and the smell of burnt wood and flesh.

When they finally cleared the trees, the sight before them made them all gasp.

Where the village had once stood was flat ground. Houses had been burnt down and all life ceased to be visible.

There were graves they noticed as they walked into the debris and stared around.

Beckett knelt down and read the plaque, "Here lies the family of Greyas," he said and stood up, "Who did this?"

"I guess there were survivors," said Ford holding up his P90.

"Rodney, Any life signs?" asked Sheppard looking beyond the burnt city and out towards the horizon.

"No nothing. Whoever was here has left."

Sheppard continued to fan out and look for any sign of life. There was nothing.

Whoever had been here had left quickly.

He was saddened that he couldn't find any remains of his team members who had gone down in the fight.

"There's nothing here," said Beckett looking around nervously.

Sheppard looked up instinctively and thought he could hear the distant buzz of a wraith dart in his ears. It turned out to be a distant memory and he turned to his team, "Lets leave."

"Wait," said McKay stepping over to a large board that had been erected near the towns entrance. It appeared to be the roof of one of the old houses and it was stood vertical.

It was written in wraith.

"What does it say?" asked Sheppard his hands coming to rest on his P90.

"I'm looking," said Mckay and he scribbled something down on a pad of paper.

"Well?" asked Beckett.

Mckay looked up and gave them an exasperated sigh, "One second……got it…..oh."

"What?" asked Beckett and Sheppard in unison.

"It says **the wraith are false gods**," he said swallowing thickly.

"I guess the message got through to them," said Sheppard with a shake of his head. It was a shame it had to get through to them in such a horrifying manner.

"Why is it in wraith?" asked Ford.

"I guess they wanted any other believers to see it was written by a fellow worshipper of the wraith," said Mckay.

They all stood and stared at the board in silence and listened as the rain fell onto them.

"We should go," said Sheppard, "There isn't anything here."

"Nothing but the truth," muttered Beckett and with a final glance over their shoulders, they set back to the gate.

Back to Home.

THE END.

Now I can get on with my other story FATAL ATTRACTIONS (Shameless plug-sorry!)


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